Last 3 months headlines – Page 1390
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Personal injury
Maintenance of action - Assignment of right of action - Claimant appealing Simpson v Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Maurice Kay (vice-president), Moore-Bick, Dame Janet Smith): 12 October 2011 ...
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Balanced budget?
It is reported that the government plans to increase its foreign aid budget by a staggering 35% to countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Burma, where international aid officials concede that fraud and corruption have been endemic for years. It is plainly the case that ...
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Human rights
Right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions - Property - Devolution issues - Scotland AXA General Insurance Ltd and others v Lord Advocate and others (Scotland): SC (Justices of the Supreme Court - Lords Hope (deputy president), Brown, Mance, Kerr, ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain - Refusal of leave - Human rights - Right to respect for private and family life R (on the application of Aguilar Quila) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; R (on the application of ...
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Workers’ rights go in and out of fashion
Many comparisons can be made between employment law and the fashion industry - even leaving aside the glamour of its practitioners. Both can be cruel mistresses, blown in the winds of opinion; each is subject to changes that can appear at best fickle (and are often imported from the continent). ...
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Criminal-case mediation ‘by 2020’
Compulsory mediation of civil disputes and mediation of criminal cases could be introduced in the UK by 2020, a High Court judge has suggested. Mr Justice Ramsey (pictured) predicted that in 10 years’ time a Mediation Act would make the process compulsory before parties could ...
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MPs call for comprehensive referral fee ban
An influential Commons committee has today called on the Ministry of Justice to impose a comprehensive ban on referral fees and tougher penalties for breaching data protection laws. A report published by the House of Commons justice committee concludes that referral fees often reward illegal behaviour, ...
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Claimant solicitors to get fraud data access
Claimant solicitors are set to be given unprecedented access to fraud records to root out potentially bogus cases. Agreement that lawyers acting for claimants should have access to the same information as motor insurers and their representatives follows a ground-breaking meeting between the insurance industry and ...
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Costs rule ‘will fuel litigation’
Litigators may face a tough new rule on the ‘proportionality’ of their costs that could fuel satellite litigation and uncertainty, experts warned last week. Nicholas Bacon QC, a member of both the Civil Procedure Rules committee and Civil Justice Council group dealing with implementation of the ...
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Court closures 'undermine Big Society'
A leading barrister has called for a halt to magistrates’ court closures, saying economies would be better made by returning the courts to magistrates’ control. In a pamphlet, The Cost to Justice, published by think tank Politeia, Stanley Brodie QC said the programme to cut 142 ...
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LCJ ‘not giving up’ on solicitor judges
Law firms should be more supportive of solicitors applying for judicial positions and stop allowing the issue to blight promising careers, the UK’s two senior judges told a House of Lords committee last week. Supreme Court president Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers and Lord Chief Justice ...
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Lawyers working at quangos can get support
With the government’s controversial Public Bodies Bill promising a ‘bonfire of the quangos’, lawyers working in the sector are facing an unsettled future, with increasing demands to do more within shrinking budgets. The bill, currently making its way through parliament, will allow ministers, by order, to abolish, merge or transfer ...
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Needless long hours
I read the comments of both Nick Herbert and in relation to magistrates sitting at unsocial times and hours. I have little respect for Mr Herbert’s opinion that ‘swift justice is currently the exception...’. Is he unaware of the Criminal Justice: Simple, Speedy Summary (CJSSS) process? ...
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Keep formal training
I have followed the recent correspondence and editorial on the subject of training with some interest. I am about to retire after over 40 years as a solicitor and nearly 50 years at work. Mr Howell’s experience must have been later than mine.
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The worst advice
According to reports, the government has asked Aviva, AXA, Direct Line and the Association of British Insurers to help shape its justice reforms. Having had the misfortune of dealing with these organisations for many years, I realise just how ridiculous a proposition this is, although perhaps ...
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LSC helpline cut back again
The Legal Services Commission’s telephone helpline is taking emergency calls only in an effort to reduce a backlog of work. Emergency calls are those requiring action within 48 hours or where the information being sought is not available elsewhere. In July, the commission cut the ...
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Referral fee ban will go in legal aid bill
The justice secretary has confirmed that a rule banning the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases will be introduced into the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and debated next week in parliament. Kenneth Clarke tabled the amendment, stating that a regulated ...
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Plea for Society to join forensic service fight
A solicitor renowned for his work freeing the wrongly convicted Guildford Four has asked the Law Society to become a ‘major player’ in the campaign to stop the government’s proposed closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS).
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More than just ‘bumper stickers’
To refer to documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a series of ‘bumper stickers devoid of substance’ - as one speaker did at the ‘Fairness, Justice and Human Rights’ conference last Saturday - is to overlook an important point. While it is ...