Lawyer plundered more than £600,000 from elderly clients to pay for call girls – Daily Telegraph

Posted June 2nd, 2015 in news, powers of attorney, sentencing, solicitors, theft by sally

‘The village solicitor raided the accounts of 13 clients aged between 67 and 100 and spent the money on ‘pens, pottery, pornography and prostitutes’.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 1st June 2015

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

High Court rejects challenge to closure of ABS from solicitor who “lost ethical compass” – Legal Futures

‘The High Court has rejected a challenge to the closure of an alternative business structure by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). It was the first time an ABS closure decision has been tested in the High Court.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 13th May 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

High Court refuses 100% success fee because trial had not started – Litigation Futures

‘The High Court has refused to allow a personal injury claimant a 100% success fee on the grounds that a trial had not started before the case was settled, even though a hearing had begun.’

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Litigation Futures, 8th May 2015

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Court of Appeal warns solicitors over standards of ‘commoditised’ services – Legal Futures

Posted April 29th, 2015 in appeals, compensation, miners, news, solicitors by sally

‘Economic pressures forcing solicitors to ‘commoditise’ their advice “throw into sharp focus the need for standard form letters of advice to be clear in their exposition”, the Court of Appeal warned yesterday.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 29th April 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Birdseye and another v Roythorne & Co and others – WLR Daily

Birdseye and another v Roythorne & Co and others [2015] EWHC 1003 (Ch); [2015] WLR (D) 169

‘It remained the case that a person had to establish as a prima facie case that he was a beneficiary before there could be any question of the court requiring a trustee or executor to disclose documents which would be protected by privilege if the applicant were not a beneficiary.’

WLR Daily, 15th April 2015

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Fairness in the courts: the best we can do – Speech by Lord Neuberger

Fairness in the courts: the best we can do (PDF)

Speech by Lord Neuberger

Supreme Court, 10th April 2015

Source: www.supremecourt.uk

High Court judge urges commercial practitioners to cut out the insults – Litigation Futures

Posted April 17th, 2015 in barristers, costs, news, professional conduct, solicitors by sally

‘There is an “urgent need for commercial practitioners to bring a sense of proportion” to hard-fought litigation, a High Court judge said yesterday as he called on lawyers to bring down, rather than raise, the temperature of disputes.’

Full story

Litigation Futures, 17th April 2015

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Government accepts case to exempt lawyers from ‘groundless threats’ laws – Legal Futures

‘Lawyers who act on instructions in threatening potential intellectual property infringers with action are to be exempt from being sued when the threat turns out to be groundless, after the government recently gave the go-ahead for law reforms.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 13th April 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Deprivation of liberty guidance clarifies rules – Law Society’s Gazette

‘The Law Society has today issued new guidance on deprivation of liberty safeguards (DOLS) to help lawyers meet an expected 10-fold surge in the number of legal challenges to DOLS over the coming year.’

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 9th April 2015

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

‘Uncertainty’ over second 8.75% legal aid fee cut – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted April 7th, 2015 in fees, legal aid, news, solicitors by sally

‘Criminal practitioners are demanding answers from the Legal Aid Agency over what they say is uncertainty regarding proposed cuts in fees.’

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 3rd April 2015

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Solicitors’ client accounts: whose money is it anyway? – Hardwicke Chambers

Posted April 1st, 2015 in appeals, damages, insolvency, loans, news, solicitors by sally

‘If a potential defendant is insolvent, it is a matter of critical importance to the potential claimant if they are able to assert a proprietary right over money or goods as opposed to a mere personal claim for damages.’

Full story

Hardwicke Chambers, 24th March 2015

Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk

Paralegals could damage solicitor ‘brand’ – survey – Law Society’s Gazette

‘Paralegals who qualify as solicitors without completing a formal training contract could damage the solicitor ‘brand’, according to a survey by Leeds Law Society.’

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Law Society’s Gazette, 31st March 2015

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Keep legal executives out of the Crown Court, Rivlin report demands – Legal Futures

‘A report for the Bar Council on the future of criminal justice and advocacy has recommended that legal executives are kept out of the Crown Courts, while solicitors should only be granted rights of audience if they have undergone the same level of training as barristers.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 31st March 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Struck off and now disbarred: lawyer who defrauded the Law Society – Legal Futures

‘A former solicitor and non-practising barrister who was convicted of a string of offences – including assaulting two police officers and defrauding the Law Society of £23,000 while a member of its council – has been disbarred two months after she was struck off the roll of solicitors.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 27th March 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Solicitors fail to stop cuts in legal aid defence contracts – The Guardian

Posted March 26th, 2015 in appeals, Law Society, legal aid, news, solicitors by sally

‘Criminal solicitors have failed in their attempt to prevent the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, imposing deep cuts on the number of legal aid contracts for defence lawyers.’

Full story

The Guardian, 25th March 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Paralegal hopes to be first solicitor admitted through ‘equivalent means’ route – Legal Futures

‘Paralegal Shaun Lawler has said he hopes to be the first solicitor admitted to the profession through the ‘equivalent means’ route rather a traditional training contract.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 20th March 2015

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Coulson J slashes “entirely unreliable” costs budget from £9.5m to £4.3m – Litigation Futures

Posted March 9th, 2015 in budgets, civil procedure rules, costs, damages, news, proportionality, solicitors by tracey

‘The High Court has slashed a claimant company’s costs budget from £9.5m to £4.3m, describing it as “entirely unreliable” and “deliberately manipulated”.’

Full story

Litigation Futures, 9th March 2015

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

No duty on solicitors to check credit status of parties, High Court rules – Legal Futures

Posted March 5th, 2015 in consumer credit, law firms, news, solicitors by tracey

‘Solicitors are not under a general duty to check the credit status of parties in a commercial transaction unless instructed to, the High Court has ruled.’

Full story

Legal Futures, 4th March 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

The judicial review of regulations on funding judicial review – NearlyLegal

‘The legal aid funding regulations for judicial reviews, in effect from April 2014, were the subject of this judicial review. To cut to the chase, the Lord Chancellor lost, but no remedy decided yet. (Disclaimer, I submitted a witness statement in support of the Claimants in this case, on the impact on homeless judicial reviews in particular. So you are warned of any possible partiality.)’

Full story

NearlyLegal, 3rd March 2015

Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk

Al-Sweady file exposes the smearing of British soldiers – Daily Telegraph

‘Evidence drawn up on David Cameron’s orders alleges that Public Interest Lawyers continued to pursue torture and murder claims for a year after realising that they may be “untrue”.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 1st March 2015

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk