Last 3 months headlines – Page 1371
-
News
Making the grade: examining accreditation schemes
A campaign to raise public awareness of the Law Society’s accreditation schemes and their value in helping people choose firms or specialist practitioners in increasingly competitive markets will be launched shortly. There is growing interest within the profession about the schemes.
-
News
Accreditation schemes give consumers more choice
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘accreditation’ thus: ‘Give authority or sanction to someone or something when recognised standards have been met.’ Which is precisely what happens when someone qualifies to be a practising solicitor, a point not lost on those who are ambivalent about the development of ...
-
News
Judges should be given the respect they deserve
by District Judge Paul Mildred, the new President of the Association of Her Majesty’s District Judges, Bournemouth Combined Court Centre It is time to bring back respect for the judiciary along with everyone else involved in public service.
-
News
MPs call for rethink on legal aid
An influential committee of MPs has criticised the government’s ‘dramatic’ legal aid reforms and called on ministers to ‘refine’ their proposals. In a report published this week, the House of Commons Justice Committee recommended that the Ministry of Justice look at other ways to make the ...
-
News
Jackson reforms ‘devastating’
The government’s plans to implement Lord Justice Jackson’s headline civil costs reforms are a ‘devastating attack on access to justice’, the Law Society warned on Tuesday. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke confirmed this week that legislation will be introduced to implement Jackson’s reforms, which will force winning ...
-
News
Legal aid firm merger to ‘embrace new opportunities'
Two high-profile legal aid firms are to merge this week to create one of the largest publicly funded criminal defence practices in the country, the Gazette can reveal. Noble, with offices in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire, will merge with Wembley and Watford firm Tank Jowett on ...
-
News
Public law practitioners at ‘breaking point’
Public law solicitors are at ‘breaking point’ due to increased workloads and financial pressure, according to an authoritative report published this week. A study of how parents are represented in care proceedings, by academics at Bristol University’s school of law, found that solicitors acting for parents ...
-
News
Fraudsters jailed for £140,000 injury law scam
Six fraudsters were jailed last week for fronting a fake claims company that defrauded 19 personal injury law firms of almost £140,000. The company, North West Claims, which was run from an apartment in the Beetham Tower, Manchester, referred fictitious road traffic accident claims to solicitors ...
-
News
Young women solicitors far outnumber men
Women solicitors significantly outnumber men at the younger end of the profession, according to Law Society research published today. If current trends continue, the profession could comprise more women than men within the next ten years. The Society’s annual statistical report shows ...
-
News
Lawyers ‘sound off’ for legal aid
Hundreds of lawyers took to the streets of central London on Saturday to protest against the government’s proposed legal aid cuts. Under the banners of the Law Society’s ‘Sound off for justice’ campaign, Justice for All and Young Legal Aid Lawyers, they joined the TUC’s ...
-
News
Claims farmers ban on hold
A government proposal to ban ‘claims farmers’ from offering cash inducements and other benefits to the public has been put on hold, the Ministry of Justice confirmed this week. Responding to its consultation on the proposed ban, which was triggered by Lord Young of Graffham’s report ...
-
News
Law Society of Scotland defers constitutional reform
A three-year project to modernise the constitution of the 10,500-strong Law Society of Scotland has run into difficulties, after solicitors failed to agree on the proposed changes. At the Edinburgh-based body’s annual meeting last Friday, a motion to rescind the current constitution won approval, with ...
-
News
Ilex fast-track route proves popular
More than 270 law graduates have embarked on the Institute of Legal Executives’ (ILEX) fast-track route to becoming a solicitor since its launch in 2009, the Gazette has learned. Some 66 graduates applied for the scheme during the last quarter. ...
-
News
Businesses face ‘human rights audit’
Human rights lawyers could be called upon to audit big businesses for possible human rights abuses, if proposals submitted last week to the UN Human Rights Council are endorsed. A six-year UN-commissioned study on business and human rights has concluded that companies should regularly carry out ...
-
News
Clyde & Co fails to thwart partner’s tribunal hearing
A City firm has failed to stop a former partner from bringing sex and pregnancy discrimination claims to the Employment Tribunal by seeking to rely on an arbitration clause in its partnership agreement. Clyde & Co dismissed Krista Bates van Winkelhof in January. She then filed ...
-
News
Wragge & Co advises Phones 4u, Unilever's Sanex sale and JJB Sports stock exchange switch
It’s for you: Birmingham firm Wragge & Co advised the management of mobile phone retailer Phones 4u on its sale to private equity house BC Partners, for an undisclosed sum. US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges advised private ...
-
News
QC appointment system outdated
I write with reference to the article ‘Excellence comes with experience’ by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff (see [2011] Gazette, 10 March, 10). Ms Scott-Moncrieff says that ‘the QC appointments system, both now and in the past, is intended to identify excellence in higher court advocacy, which excludes the ...
-
News
Riding roughshod over the rules
I read with some interest and no little surprise that it seems that insurers are not disclosing to their policyholders referral arrangements and the level of fees they receive. After the introduction of the Solicitors Code of Conduct in 2007, there was a personal injury conference ...
-
News
Time to adopt US libel model
Lawsuits fought by foreigners who often have no link with Britain should soon be an historical anomaly if Kenneth Clarke has his way. But putting an end to ‘libel tourism’ is only part of the problem. Defendants can already put forward the defence of fair ...
-
News
Coalition failing on law reform
I read with interest your Opinion highlighting the helter-skelter approach to law reform being pursued by the coalition, While the Con-Dems certainly appear keen to sell to public opinion their reforming credentials, their words do not match their deeds. That rancid chestnut – the ‘compensation culture’ ...