Last 3 months headlines – Page 1329
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Display of affection
The high street of Church Stretton, Shropshire, is just a little more romantic this week thanks to the efforts of local solicitors. Shropshire firm PCB Solicitors has a Valentine’s Day display, put together by administration assistant Jade Phillips. Jade does ‘a fantastic job’, solicitor Pauline Davies tells us.
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Solicitors enter Dragon’s Den
Gimlet-eyed multi-millionaires look on sceptically as you launch into your business pitch. Pulse tripping, you contemplate the excruciating embarrassment of freezing before the cameras and unseen millions gawping at their TV screens. Or maybe you manage to limp through to the end of your presentation only to hear your ambitions ...
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Coming clean
James Morton’s anecdotes on the evergreen topic of court dress code have provoked a few recollections of judicial observations.
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Poetic licence
One of Australia’s great literary hoaxes was played on the intellectual magazine ...
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The corporate market is changing and its firms need to adapt
As we report today, several years of harder economic times have effected a permanent change in the instruction choices of general counsel in our largest corporations. Even with improved budgets in 2011 and 2012, they are opting to grow headcount in-house, and achieve legal advice coverage through increased use of ...
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County Court reforms could cripple system
by Francesca Kaye, vice-president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association The ministerial foreword to the government’s response to the consultation Solving Disputes in the County Courts states: ‘An effective justice system is the cornerstone of a civilised society… upon which ordinary members of the public rely ...
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Commitment to human rights should begin in UK
Governments in the UK have traditionally exhibited a somewhat divided attitude to the use of torture. The trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 raised, in essence, the same issues as those in the more recent case of Abu Qatada, the cleric sought by Jordan. How fair can a trial ...
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BT Claims has taken part of the market by surprise
I thought the news that a BT subsidiary has applied to become an alternative business structure (ABS) was the most interesting so far in what is predicted to be a year of unprecedented change in the legal profession. Sure, it’s interesting that private equity money is ...
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What you can’t see will hurt you
Here’s the problem, there’s a nagging uncertainty about ‘high street’ solicitors' firms. There is a lot going on but you haven’t quite seen a specific challenge or threat to your firm. Whatever the threats are, you can’t quite clarify the problem in terms of how you run your firm because ...
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Acting as a single joint expert
The principle of single joint experts (SJE) has been in existence for many years now but how often is it used? In a straw poll conducted amongst my colleagues, it has seldom been adopted by our clients. It may be more commonly used in the types and/or sizes of cases ...
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Three kinds of 'liberty'
It’s been a fraught and, in one instance, poignantly tragic month for three detained individuals who gained their liberty. We have had ‘fanatical hate preacher’ Abu Qatada’s release from jail after almost a decade’s detention without charge.
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Referral fee ban will trigger PI buyouts
Personal injury firms will become takeover targets as claims managers and brokers prepare for the referral fee ban, according to a report published today by Deloitte. The business advisory firm predicted that those with the most to lose from a ban will use the new rules ...
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Keeping up appearances
What is the test when a tenant applies to set aside a possession order made in their absence? Following Estate Acquisition and Development Ltd v Wiltshire [2006] EWCA Civ 533, [2006] All ER (D) 50 (a case of forfeiture of a lease), it seemed that the answer lay in rule ...
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LSC chair pledges to safeguard ‘high-quality’ legal aid system
The legal aid system in England and Wales ‘compares favourably’ with any in the world, despite the proposed cuts, according to the chair of the Legal Services Commission. In a speech, Sir Bill Callaghan (pictured) told Liverpool Law Society: ‘Together the LSC and legal aid ...
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PM’s ‘summit’ on whiplash excludes legal profession
Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of sidelining the legal profession in talks about dealing with whiplash cases. Cameron met with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and leading insurance firms on Tuesday for a much-publicised ‘summit’ over the rising cost of car insurance. ...
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Senior judge savages advocacy accreditation scheme
A senior judge has ridiculed the ‘steely gaze of the judicial viper’ that sits at the centre of the new ratings scheme for advocates. He called instead for ‘academies of advocacy’ in which judges, barristers and solicitors ‘enliven and encourage’ one another.
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'Big conversation' needed on social networking
A US judge denied a lawyer continuance of trial after the latter’s Facebook entry revealed he was absent from court because he was out partying and had not suffered a bereavement as claimed, an International Bar Association (IBA) report on social networking recounts. Elsewhere, the Supreme ...
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Mesothelioma ruling opens way to higher payouts for elderly
Elderly victims of mesothelioma could be entitled to substantial compensation, following a landmark ruling on damages for pain and suffering. In the High Court last week Mrs Justice Swift awarded 92-year-old Dennis Ball £50,000 compensation for pain and suffering after he developed asbestos-related cancer following his ...
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If mediation can cure the system, why is it still voluntary?
Imagine taking a mediator out for dinner. They’d sit there weighing up every option, hearing the waiter argue the merits of the salmon and the steak, before deciding to have a little of both (and possibly doubling the bill). I’d be on my second bottle before ...
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County court shake-up plans dubbed a ‘missed opportunity’
The government has come under fire from all sides of the civil litigation spectrum over its plans to reform the county court system. The Ministry of Justice last week confirmed plans to raise the limit of small claims through the county court system to £10,000 and ...