Last 3 months headlines – Page 1381

  • News

    Top firms sign up to new internship scheme

    2011-09-09T00:00:00Z

    More than 20 leading law firms have signed up to a scheme that guarantees work experience for young people from less privileged backgrounds. The commitment, launched this week under the name of Prime, will see firms offer a minimum of 30 hours of work experience per ...

  • News

    Practice

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Stay of proceedings - Pre-trial or post-judgment relief - Section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 Deutsche Bank AG v Tongkah Harbour and another company: QBD (Comm) (Mr Justice Blair): 24 August 2011 ...

  • News

    Labour targets Lib Dems on legal aid bill

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors have welcomed opposition amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill tabled this week, but warned that debate on access to justice issues could be drowned out if MPs choose to focus on sentencing reform as a result of political ­priorities. ...

  • News

    Legal aid reform could be 'business deterrent'

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    The government’s legal aid reforms could undermine the reputation of the English legal system and deter people from doing business in the UK, the chairman-elect of the Bar Council has warned. Michael Todd QC (pictured) told the Gazette that the English legal system boasts exceptional judges ...

  • News

    Call for changes to quality assurance scheme

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society is to make a direct appeal to regulators to change details of the contentious Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA). Several solicitor-advocates have contacted the Society to register their concerns at the proposed assessment scheme. In particular, practitioners have ...

  • News

    Lawyers are taking stock in preparation for PII

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    This year, renewal is about what is not happening in the professional indemnity insurance market - this is not the year that the assigned risks pool is closed down, nor the year that the renewal date will change, and the impact of alternative business structures has yet to be felt. ...

  • News

    Insurer blames solicitors’ fees for referral controversy

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    The head of claims at car insurance giant Admiral has claimed that solicitors’ fees are to blame for the continuing row over referral fees. The comments were made as claimant lawyers reacted with fury this week to new figures published by the Association of British Insurers, ...

  • News

    Off the wall

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    London firm TV Edwards has commissioned this intriguing mural to celebrate the opening of its new offices in Whitechapel. The painting, on Mile End Road, stands on the Olympic Highway and was designed by artist Mychael Barratt. It is packed with famous folk with a ...

  • News

    Whitehall plans to scrap AJTC ‘perverse’

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Government plans to scrap the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council are ‘misguided’ and ‘perverse’, the body’s chair has told the Ministry of Justice. Responding to the consultation proposing the abolition of the AJTC, Richard Thomas said the independent body, which reviews the administrative justice system and ...

  • News

    UK lawyers stumped in Barbados

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    On the subject of lawyers and sport, Obiter can report that the British Lawyers’ Cricket World Cup squad has returned from Barbados, though the team were apparently a touch disappointed not to have been met by an excitable press pack on landing at Gatwick. The ...

  • News

    Unite campaign backs public service interpreting

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Trade union Unite is to launch a campaign to support public service interpreting and ensure that properly trained translators are used by criminal justice agencies.

  • News

    Family law

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Obiter loves a good legal wedding, so congratulations to Ann Thomas and David Hodson, managing partner and finance partner respectively of London firm International Family Law Group, who have just tied the knot. They founded their niche West End firm in 2007 with ...

  • News

    Banks pledge to help with cashflow problems

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Four high street banks have agreed to help law firms that are experiencing cashflow difficulties resulting from the ongoing delays in payment from the Legal Services Commission, following a request from the Law Society. Chancery Lane wrote to banks to alert them to the problems being ...

  • News

    War on words

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Joining the recent crusade against verbosity within the profession is Bob Miller, associate at Fentons in Manchester. He tells Obiter that he detests it when lawyers use ‘the same’ instead of ‘it’, for example by writing, ‘We look forward to receiving the same’. ‘By return of post’ is a phrase ...

  • News

    Book offers many compelling insights into the use of legal terminology

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    It’s always a pleasure to find that a publisher has sent me a book for review. Sometimes the pleasure evaporates as soon as I open the packaging: polemics and monographs are not my favourite bedtime reading. My heart also tends to sink when I find ...

  • News

    This sporting life

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Apart from a note at the Law Society’s School of Law about the bar being there to promote ’social intercourse’, there was also the Solicitors Articled Clerks’ Society (SACS), writes James Morton. The latter, if I recall, had a tie with a donkey’s – or probably ass’s – head ...

  • News

    New suitability test will be a cornerstone

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    With a move to a system which is based on principles rather than rules, it becomes even more important that we ensure only those who can meet those principles enter the legal profession. I have always taken a keen interest in legal education and training as ...

  • News

    E-petition lodged calling for tighter tenant deposit protection

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    A solicitor has lodged an e-petition urging the government to strengthen the law protecting residential rent deposits paid by tenants to landlords. Tenancy deposit protection legislation, introduced by the Housing Act 2004, was designed to protect tenants against unscrupulous landlords who refused to return deposits at ...

  • News

    Tragedy of council legal head ‘unable to cope’

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    A senior local authority solicitor committed suicide because he was unable to cope with the demands placed on him following a 30% cut to his department’s budget. In the wake of the tragedy, the chair of Solicitors in Local Government (SLG) has warned that redundancies in ...

  • News

    Legal training falls short on will drafting

    2011-09-08T00:00:00Z

    We are fortunate to have had some extremely competent trainees in recent years. However, even those who have taken the wills option at law school come poorly prepared to advise a client and draft their will. A current trainee has shown me ...