A round-up of the week’s news
18 January
A court in Blackpool closed last year as a safety precaution has been permanently condemned – leaving the town without any such facility for at least two years. Blackpool Magistrates’ and County Court was one of eight buildings across the country shut after being found to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
17 January
A firm which failed to check any of the sources of funds on three property transactions was fined £23,216 by the SRA. The sanction was imposed on Ilford firm TTS Legal Ltd after an investigation into the transactions, which took place between 2018 and 2020.
Gateley reported that profit before tax rose 16.8% to £7.4m on revenue up 7.6% to £82m in the six months to 31 October. However, the listed company admitted activity levels in the most recent quarter have been ‘subdued’, particularly for some transactional teams.
Big Four firm EY has become the latest legal practice to respond to the slump in City transactional activity with job cuts. The firm, which entered the legal services market as an alternative business structure in 2014, revealed that 24 employees from its UK financial services legal advisory business are subject to a redundancy consultation.
16 January
The catastrophic collapse of Axiom Ince could derail plans for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to take over the regulation of legal executives, it emerged. CILEX revealed to the Gazette that it has asked for a guarantee that legal executives will not have to foot any part of a potential multi-million-pound call on the compensation fund.
A constitutional row appeared to be brewing over the deployment of judges to handle Rwanda (pictured) deportation appeals. Responding to reports that the prime minister plans to draft 150 judges to fast-track Rwanda appeals, the Judicial Office said in an unusually forthright statement that the deployment of judges is a matter for the lady chief justice and senior tribunals president.
A litigant in person in a divorce case was penalised with £10,000 costs for directing ‘threatening’ emails to his wife’s solicitor’s trainee. Deputy District Judge Mark Harrop said it was a ‘particularly disturbing’ aspect of proceedings that the husband in KA v LE repeatedly targeted the most junior legal representative for communications.
Brain injury claims brought by former footballers and the family of England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles had their first day in court. The High Court heard that the case, over alleged harm caused by heading the ball, involves more than a dozen players. It is expected that the number ‘will grow probably quite considerably and be in the region of 50 to 75’. The defendants are the International Football Association Board, the Football Association, the Football League Limited and the Football Association of Wales.
15 January
Sheffield Crown Court closed after a ‘catastrophic’ burst pipe flooded all floors of the building, including the cells. At London’s flagship Rolls Building, cases were diverted to the Royal Courts of Justice because of a power outage; while at the Old Bailey, a piece of fallen masonry injured a pedestrian. Law Society president Nick Emmerson hit out at ‘the degradation of the courts estate across England and Wales due to decades of underinvestment’.
The head of the profession’s oversight regulator announced he is moving on. Matthew Hill will step down as chief executive of the Legal Services Board to take on the same role with the Chartered Insurance Institute.
More than a dozen barristers’ chambers each stand to lose thousands of pounds after the collapse of the debt-ridden SSB Group, new documents revealed. An administrator’s report for the Sheffield claims business states that SSB went under owing £205m. Much of that was accounted for through loan agreements with litigation funders, but there is also a string of legal businesses owed money by SSB and now unlikely to receive a penny.
12 January
Cash-strapped councils are refusing to pay practising certificate fees – which could have disastrous consequences for local authorities and their legal teams, Lawyers in Local Government warned.
The UK’s appeal to businesses as a centre for dispute resolution will be boosted by the signing of the 2019 Hague Convention on private international law, the government said. The treaty, signed in the Netherlands by justice minister Lord Bellamy (pictured), creates an international framework of rules for recognition and enforcement of judgments in cross-border civil disputes. The Law Society stressed the need to continue discussions on joining the Lugano Convention on jurisdiction, the UK’s membership of which lapsed with Brexit.
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