Last 3 months headlines – Page 1380
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Former equity partner brings claim to Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has begun hearing an age discrimination case brought by a former equity partner who claims his law firm acted unlawfully in making him retire aged 65. The hearing is expected to last three days from today and the ruling could have wide-ranging implications ...
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Money and clients in 2012
There has been a bit in the press recently about the rush of clients we get the first day back at work after Christmas. It is a busy time for family lawyers as sadly there are many people wanting advice about divorce. I do not think it just that people ...
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At last a money laundering challenge in Strasbourg
For a long time now, lawyers - or at any rate those concerned by the consequences of the reporting duties imposed on lawyers by the European money laundering legislation - have been waiting for a case to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the subject ...
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SRA announces help with late registrations
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced further help for solicitors who missed last week’s target date for activating their mySRA account. The SRA said that 118,000 had successfully registered by that date. It is urging anyone needing a new activation code to visit the relevant ...
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Lib Dem peer holds out hope for LASPO retreat
A Liberal Democrat peer has indicated there could be ‘major changes’ to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill during its passage through the House of Lords. Lord Phillips of Sudbury, a former solicitor, said the majority of cross bench and Labour peers, along ...
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Whiplash is a pain in the neck to write about
To borrow from Donald Rumsfeld, there are known knowns and there are things we know we know, but we also know there are unknown knowns. No sooner had the Commons transport committee waded into this minefield earlier this week than my inbox was flooded with responses.
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£185m rescue for NHS litigation fund
The Department of Health has confirmed that a £185m emergency bailout fund has been found for the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA). Clinical negligence claims against the NHS reached an estimated value of £1bn last year, after rising from from £5,697m to £8,655m over the preceding five years. ...
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Employment
Unfair dismissal - Constructive dismissal - Damages - Two appeals being heard together Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Botham v Ministry of Defence (Lords Phillips P, Walker, Mance, Kerr, Dyson and Wilson, Lady Hale): Supreme Court: ...
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Proposed procedures are misguided
Government moves that would further undermine open justice have been attacked by the very lawyers on whom ministers rely to support the existing system of closed courts. It’s a major setback for the security service, which persuaded justice secretary Kenneth Clarke to endorse the reforms in a green paper on ...
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Environment
Protection - Pollution - Air pollution - European directive requiring reduction in emissions R (on the application of Clientearth) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Mitting (judgment delivered extempore)): 13 December ...
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In defiance of logic
Supreme Court justice-elect Jonathan Sumption QC may be of a dazzlingly high intellectual calibre with a heady penchant for the Hundred Years War but, as Roger Smith intimates, is he so subjective in his view of the role of the state in modern Britain that he is willing to regularly ...
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Focus on justice, not social engineering
Is racism now worse than murder? A few weeks ago I heard about a couple of cases which, if accurately reported, gave me great concern about the politicised nature of our criminal justice system. It was reported that there had recently been an instance where family ...
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Right prescription for public respect
We are all familiar with some of the well-known pejorative words and phrases used about lawyers in general and solicitors in particular. We have spent years and probably many millions of pounds trying to improve our public image using PR firms and proposals. I wish to float an idea which ...
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Commercial need
I wonder whether solicitors like your correspondent Franklin Sinclair have considered that, in the long run, they might do their clients, including the most vulnerable, more good by refusing to carry out large amounts of unpaid work for the benefit of an ungrateful taxpayer, than by flogging themselves to death ...
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Cameron told: ‘engage with profession on PI’
The Law Society has urged David Cameron to engage with the legal profession following his attack on the health and safety ‘monster’ and personal injury fees. In a speech last week, the prime minister proposed capping fees for personal injury claims at £25,000 and including ...
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HSBC conveyancing panel size 'could harm consumer choice'
Concerns are growing that the restricted size of HSBC’s new conveyancing panel may harm consumer choice. The bank launched the panel this week to provide services to residential mortgage customers. It has 43 members across the UK, 39 of which are solicitor firms and four licensed conveyancing companies. ...
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LSC faces action on family law contracts
The Legal Services Commission faces the threat of litigation from legal aid firms refused new family law contracts. Between 30 and 40 firms that made technical or clerical errors in the submission of their applications for contracts in the October 2011 bid round are taking advice ...