Last 3 months headlines – Page 1374
-
News
Costly T&Cs
Further to BK Watkinson’s letter I have seen an expense tucked away in the small print of terms and conditions, charging a client on a conveyance a sum approaching £100 as a contribution to the solicitors’ legal indemnity insurance.
-
News
All legal services should be regulated
The debate about which legal services should be regulated and which should not is not new. Over the years, reserved activities have been added in an ad hoc fashion and the result has been: confusion for consumers; firms being set up to undertake activities that are entirely unregulated with no ...
-
News
Firms in revolt over CPS ‘paperless’ plan
The Crown Prosecution Service’s ambitious plan to go paperless by April could be in peril following a refusal by defence firms to engage with it. In a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the 30 largest criminal firms, accounting for over 10% of the ...
-
News
Flexible working protocol launched
The Law Society has launched a flexible working protocol for legal firms, after research last year identified resistance to the practice is the ‘single most significant obstacle’ to women reaching senior roles. The protocol presents a clear business case for flexible working, including the retention of ...
-
News
OPG defends spending on fruit and hand gel
The body charged with protecting the interests of the mentally incapacitated has defended itself against a blogger’s claim that it spends £26,000 a year on fresh fruit and anti-bacterial hand gel for its 500 staff. Claims of public sector extravagance were published by Susanne Cameron-Blackie, writing ...
-
News
Public order
Appellant charged for using threatening, abusive or insulting words - Public Order Act 1986 Harvey v Director of Public Prosecutions: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Bean) (judgment delivered extempore): 17 November 2011 ...
-
News
Mediation push for workplace disputes
The government is to press ahead with its strategy for resolving workplace disputes early, by diverting parties toward mediation and away from employment tribunals. A response to a consultation on resolving workplace disputes, issued jointly by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and HM Courts ...
-
News
Society defends in-house lawyers against EU ruling
The Law Society is to defend the status of in-house lawyers against a controversial Luxembourg ruling barring them from appearing as advocates before the European Union’s top court. The Society is to lodge an application to intervene in an appeal against a 2010 ruling by the ...
-
News
The law on ‘Gangbos’
Recent changes brought about by section 34 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 (PCA) now permit the civil courts to make injunctions aimed specifically at preventing (and protecting respondents from) gang-related violence, shifting consideration of a specific criminal activity into the civil arena.
-
News
ICAEW set to regulate ABSs
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has confirmed it is applying to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures.
-
News
Immigration
Leave to remain - Claimants seeking indefinite leave to remain - Claimants convicted of serious offences in the UK R (on the application of Mayaya and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice ...
-
News
More solicitors make the bench
Solicitors outperformed barristers in two selection exercises for the judiciary completed earlier this year, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has revealed. Eleven solicitors and eight barristers were selected as district judges (magistrates’ court) and 14 solicitors and 11 barristers as lawyer chairmen of the Residential ...
-
News
Legal Ombudsman eyes voluntary jurisdiction
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has launched a consultation on whether to introduce a voluntary complaints-handling scheme for unreserved work. Its latest business plan discusses the establishment of a ‘voluntary jurisdiction’ for areas of the legal market where providers currently outside its remit may want to offer customers access to redress ...
-
News
US backs non-lawyer investment, but rejects ABSs
The US’s leading legal governance body has taken a step towards allowing non-lawyers to hold a financial stake in law firms, but is rejecting English-style alternative business structures.
-
News
Trading places with Ken
Justice secretary Ken Clarke will not be on the Christmas card list of many legal aid lawyers this year following some remarks in an interview with the International Bar Association.
-
News
Monkey business
Obiter is indebted to Loch Associates, a Tunbridge Wells and London niche employment practice, for these insights into the more eccentric aspects of employing people. Some tales from the firm’s latest newsletter: A hotel cleaner wanted a day off work, but rather than simply asking his ...
-
News
Window shopping
Bury St Edmunds firm Gross & Co Solicitors is hoping to win the town’s best-dressed Christmas window competition this year with a display based on the Theatre Royal’s production of Dick Whittington and his Cat. ‘Our displays are designed by Stephane Hanri, a well-known retail designer and visual merchandiser in ...
-
News
In detention
From what we read in the popular prints, today’s young people are no strangers to the nation’s court rooms. Perhaps that’s why the Ministry of Justice is expecting the government’s free schools to snap up many of its newly vacated court buildings. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the Commons last ...
-
News
Human rights
Inhuman or degrading treatment - Claimed mistreatment while being held in detention - European Convention on Human Rights R (on the application of Mousa) v Secretary of State for Defence and another: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Maurice Kay ...
-
News
The creation of ABSs offers the chance for others to shape the future of the in-house sector
The views of corporate counsel command a high degree of moral authority and respect in the world of commercial legal services. It was not always so, but it is now rare for private practice partners to deride in-house peers as professionals who went in-house because they ‘couldn’t cut it’ in ...