Last 3 months headlines – Page 1356
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Opponents score hat-trick on legal aid votes
The government lost all three votes in the Lords last night over proposed amendments to its legal aid bill, making concessions on the evidence needed to prove domestic violence and on powers to bring cases back into the scope of legal aid. In a series of ...
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Interpreting the interpreters’ strike
‘Know your own strength!’ the historian and intellectual E.P. Thompson told the biggest central London demonstration for years, on 25 October 1992. But we’ll never know whether the 150,000 who marched that day did know it, since they were protesting against the Major government’s emasculation of Britain’s coalmining industry.
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Blagging and the DPA - is it time to make offences imprisonable?
Despite it being almost 10 years since the start of Operation Motorman, and the subsequent furore which lead to the closure of the News of the World, it is still not possible for a person found guilty of illegally obtaining and disclosing personal information to be imprisoned for that offence. ...
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Survey shows hundreds of code of conduct breaches
Regulators have discovered hundreds of potential breaches of the new code of conduct during visits to law firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority says it found a lack of understanding of the code during its survey of 200 firms carried out before the new code’s release in ...
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2012 - the year of insolvency?
Now we have the Legal Services Act on the statute books and the first 100 alternative business structures (ABSs) applied for, what does this mean for the 8,000 or so firms who are facing a challenging future?
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Committal fee cut ‘leaves defendants unrepresented’
Defendants are being left unrepresented in magistrates’ courts following the government’s scrapping of lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings in either-way offences, the Law Society told the High Court this week. Lord Justice Burnton and Mr Justice Treacy heard the Society’s legal challenge to the lawfulness of ...
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Judicial evaluation key to quality assurance, SRA says
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed that it regards judicial evaluation as a ‘central feature’ of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. However, chief executive Antony Townsend warned today that quality assurance ‘should not be used as a device to exclude the demonstrably competent simply because their pattern of practice ...
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Court clerk turns to Google to fill interpreting gap
A court has resorted to web translation to communicate with a defendant as the fiasco over the government’s new interpreting regime continues to disrupt hearings.
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Immigration
Asylum seeker - Appeal - Respondent North Korean nationals seeking asylum SP (North Korea) and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Maurice Kay, McFarlane and Davis): 16 February 2012 ...
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Discrimination
Defendants running hotel - Defendants having strong religious beliefs Hall and another v Bull and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Sir Andrew Morritt, Lord Justice Hooper and Lady Justice Rafferty): 10 February 2012 ...
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Human rights
Right to respect for private and family life - Freedom of expression Spelman (by his litigation friends) v Express Newspapers: Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Lindblom): 15 February 2012 The ...
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Data protection
On 25 January, the European Commission presented a proposal to reform the EU’s data protection regime. The proposal consists of a regulation governing private sector use of data that would replace the current Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), and a new directive that would further regulate the processing of personal ...
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Social security
Housing benefit - Entitlement - Sheltered accommodation - Claimant in receipt of housing benefit Basey (by his litigation friend) v Oxford City Council: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Mummery, Sullivan): 15 February 2012 ...
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Employment
Employment tribunal - Procedure - Hearing Eversheds LLP v Gray: EAT (Judge Clark): 29 November 2011 Rule 16(1) of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004, SI ...
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Cash crisis could close half of CABs
Half of the 3,500 CAB advice centres run by the Citizens Advice charity could close as the government continues to squeeze legal aid and other sources of funding. News of the possible cull comes as the government prepares to give CAB extra work following its ‘bonfire of the quangos’. ...
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Government announces legal aid concessions
The government has made two key concessions demanded by opponents of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill, days before the legislation enters report stage in the House of Lords. In amendments tabled today, the government accepted that the broad definition of domestic violence ...
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Conveyancing forms update plan
The Law Society is seeking views on revising its general enquiry forms for residential conveyancing. It aims to update the property information form TA6 and the fittings and contents form TA10, which are filled in by sellers. Jonathan Smithers, chair of the Society’s land ...