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Date posted on UnjustIS

UK Government reforms herald world’s most liberal legal system

"The reverberations from the UK Government’s plans for radical reform of its legal services market, the second-largest in the world, will be felt by lawyers far beyond the white cliffs of Dover."

Legal Week Global

31 Oct

Met and City plan to merge fraud squads

The Metropolitan and City of London police forces are backing a plan to merge their economic crime units into one super fraud squad.

Independent

31 Oct

Fugitive City lawyer faces jail

A top City lawyer, who used to advise the Princess Diana Memorial Trust, is to be sentenced this week after admitting stealing at least £6.5m from his clients. Michael Fielding, a former partner at solicitors Lawrence Graham, was a fugitive from justice for more than four years...

Update: Michael Fielding jailed: Reuters

Independent

31 Oct

General counsel give law firms the boot

Some 40% of general counsel have sacked a law firm in the past year, research revealed this week.
A survey of 150 heads of legal at multinational companies, by PLC Law Department, showed that almost a third of respondents intended to dismiss more firms in the coming 12 months. Inaccurate technical advice, poor communication and conflicts of interest were cited as the reasons most likely to lead a general counsel to dismiss a firm. Other factors were poor commercial understanding, billing more than had been quoted, and doing unnecessary work.

Law Society Gazette

28 Oct

Criminal bar strike off as Carter talks pay off

Criminal barristers who have been refusing instructions in the row over legal aid are returning to work, it emerged today (27 October).

The Lawyer

27 Oct

Law Society set to face fresh training reform calls

The Law Society could face fresh calls for an overhaul of legal education when it splits its regulatory and representative arms next year, it has emerged, just days after Chancery Lane rolled out the next stage in the controversial review.

Legal Week

27 Oct

Majority support Law Society reform

PROPOSALS to strip lawyers of the right to police themselves have attracted overwhelming support.
Plans to scrap the system of self-regulation for Scotland's 10,000 lawyers when dealing with customer complaints were put to consultation this year in an acknowledgment that the public has lost confidence in the arrangement.

The Scotsman

27 Oct

Guardian Newspapers revamp site search facility

"Since Guardian Unlimited launched in 1999, our archive of content has grown and grown. Every day since then, we've added all the articles and features from two daily newspapers (The Guardian and The Observer), and an equivalent amount of material during the day from our dedicated online editorial team. There are now almost a million individual articles and other pieces of content in our database."

(This is now one of the fastest and most effective UK newspaper search facilities I have found to date. UJ)

Guardian

25 Oct

Senior solicitors are bullish on Clementi reforms

SENIOR Scottish solicitors consider it inevitable that Scotland will move into line with changes proposed by the UK government to implement radical reforms of the legal services market in England and Wales.

The Herald

24 Oct

Lotus man jailed for £80,000 fraud

A senior manager who stole more than £80,000 from Lotus cars in an elaborate scam was yesterday jailed for two years. Michael Fowler, 51, began the four-year fraud, which involved placing orders with a fictitious company, in 2001, when he became fabrication department manager - based in Norwich - on £45,000 a year

Eastern Daily Press

21 Oct

Top lawyers 'to fight web porn'

A network of specially trained lawyers is about to be unleashed on so-called cyber criminals across the UK. The Crown Prosecution Service will reveal that it has established 110 specialist barristers with the skills to deal with complex hi-tech crime.

BBC

19 Oct

THE NEW FACE OF JUSTICE

LAWYERS are to take a pledge similar to a doctor's Hippocratic oath as part of a radical shake-up of the legal system aimed at tilting it in favour of the victim.

Mirror

19 Oct

Legal Services Reform links

A selection from the press

Financial Times

The Herald

Telegraph

The Times

BBC

18 Oct

Legal Services Reform

The government wants to reform the regulatory framework for legal services to put the consumer first. We want a framework that promotes competition, innovation and protects the consumer.

Download the White Paper from the DCA web site

"...in 2004, Sir David Clementi completed a report to me on
reforming the regulatory framework. His report confirmed that the case for
reform is clear, and reform is overdue."

DCA

17 Oct

Legal services set for shake-up

The lord chancellor is today outlining plans to liberalise the legal services market.
Lord Falconer wants to abolish rules restricting the ownership of law firms, allowing large, outside companies to enter the industry. The so-called 'Tesco-law' reforms are expected to be at the heart of a new legal services white paper published later today.

ePolitix

17 Oct

Fraudulent solicitor is struck off

A solicitor who was jailed for 28 days after admitting stealing from a charity has been struck off by the Law Society. Christopher Savage was convicted at Lowestoft Magistrate's Court in December after a court heard he had abused his position as treasurer to the Beccles Round Table and Beccles Business Association(BBA) by taking money destined for the James Paget Hospital (JPH) at Gorleston.

Eastern Daily Press

17 Oct

Bar chairman's plea to lawyers

A possible solution to a damaging row between lawyers and the Government is to be set out by a barristers' leader. The unprecedented pay dispute has already led to the collapse of at least one criminal trial as barristers refuse to take on new Legal Aid cases.

The Scotsman

15 Oct

Government to take tough approach to benefit fraud

"The DWP will today publish its tough new strategy for tackling benefit fraud. "Reducing fraud in the benefit system" is a new crackdown on benefit fraudsters, using 21st century techniques to beat the criminals. We will be trialing data matching with credit reference agencies for the first time." (As often happens, the government prefers to take the easy, comfortable way out of addressing the reasons for people being on benefits in the first instance. Victims of fraud in the UK have almost no avenues for seeking justice, especially if their condition has been caused by fraudulent members of the legal profession itself. Many victims are driven to the benefits system in utter despair and misery. The government still lacks the courage to weed out the corruption in its own ranks, preferring to use the law as a cudgel to make the misery worse. It stinks. UJ)

E Gov Monitor

14 Oct

'Disregard' for his clients sees solicitor axed

A SOLICITOR whose "total disregard" for clients left them angry and frustrated has been struck off.
Michael Gray, who ran his firm from Morrison Street, Edinburgh, was accused of having a "cavalier attitude" with his refusal to co-operate with attempts to investigate their complaints.

The Scotsman

13 Oct

Bent lawyer ordered to pay back cash from passport scam

38-year-old solicitor from Enfield who was jailed for nine years for forging dozens of immigration documents for Romanian nationals has been stripped of £650,000. Chris Christodoulides, of Arnold Avenue East, Enfield, is thought to have made £1.2million from his criminal activities which he carried out between January 2001 and August 2004.

Enfield Independent

13 Oct

'£7m IOU' victims' legal struggle

Solicitors for investors swindled by a financial consultant who left a £7m IOU in a safe say they could face a long battle to win their money back. They lost large sums to Graham Price, 58, a former Halifax Bank agent at the branch in Gowerton, Swansea, awaiting sentence after admitting theft.

BBC

11 Oct

Lawyers protest against religious hatred bill

An organisation representing nearly 2,000 lawyers will demonstrate outside parliament today in protest against the government's racial and religious hatred bill. Members of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship claim that the bill, which is due to be debated in the Lords today, is in contravention of the European convention on human rights.

Guardian

11 Oct

Client loses £1m but is unable to get full compensation

Industry regulators could still be failing consumers through a potential loophole in the complaints system as IFAonline has discovered a consumer who lost £1m through bad advice is unable to get full compensation.

IFA Online

11 Oct

Arrests in boiler room scam

LONDON (Reuters) - Several British nationals have been arrested in connection with a suspected 3 million pound "boiler-room" financial fraud in Britain and Iceland, a Serious Fraud Office spokeswoman said on Friday. A joint SFO and police operation involving 140 officers executed search warrants at a number of residential and business addresses in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk on Wednesday.

Reuters

10 Oct

Lord Steyn: 'Judges are not the servants of the Government ... our duty is to the public'

For 20 years Lord Steyn has observed the judicial convention of not speaking out on government policy.

Independent

10 Oct

Reform of legal services market

PROPOSALS to introduce legislation reforming the legal services market along the lines suggested by Sir David Clementi are due to be unveiled today.

The Herald

10 Oct

Overwhelming support for end to self-regulation by lawyers

MORE than 90% of respondents to the Scottish Executive's consultation on legal complaints-handling want to see the nation's 10,000 lawyers stripped of rights to police themselves, The Herald can reveal.

The Herald

10 Oct

Victims could get longer to sue

Crime victims could be given more time to sue for damages under law changes being considered by the Home Office. It is considering extending the six-year limit on lodging a claim, after the High Court ruled a woman could not sue a lottery-winning rapist.

BBC

08 Oct

'Lotto rapist' victim loses right to sue

A 76-year-old woman who was viciously sexually assaulted by the "Lotto rapist" Iorworth Hoare, yesterday lost her High Court appeal against a ruling stopping her suing him for compensation. (Is it time that the Limitation Act was reviewed for such cases, and for fraud? UJ see above:)

Telegraph

08 Oct

Biggest ever NHS pay fraud

A CROOKED NHS manager who swindled £585,000 by sending salaries to a string of bogus employees is facing jail. Nigerian Joy Henry, 47, admitted masterminding what is believed to be the biggest payroll fraud in the history of the NHS.

IC South London

07 Oct

Govt appoints Judicial Appointments chair

The Government has confirmed Baroness Usha Prashar as the first chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the new body that will take responsibility for appointing judges in England and Wales. Prashar will head up the independent 14-member body from its launch in April 2006, overseeing the open selection of judges in courts and tribunals, both responsibilities which previously fell under the remit of the Lord Chancellor.

Legal Week

07 Oct

Halifax theft victims want their money

PRESSURE is growing on financial giant Halifax to compensate customers who lost money to crooked branch manager Graham Price. The 58-year-old married man stole £10m, then left an "IOU" note for astonished Halifax auditors in the vast, empty safe at the branch he ran in Gowerton, Swansea.

IC Wales

07 Oct

Paraskeva stays on to guide Law Society through reforms

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva has struck a deal that will allow her to stay on in the role until the end of next year, it has emerged, as speculation continues over the future of Chancery Lane’s top brass. Paraskeva, who was initially due to retire after her 60th birthday in May next year, has sealed an agreement with the society that will allow her to delay her retirement date until as late as 1 January, 2007.

Legal Week

06 Oct

City Law Society to press for full trade union role

The City of London Law Society (CLLS) is to press ahead with ambitious plans to carve out a ‘trade union’ role after winning the backing of a group of the City’s top law firms. The decision, which comes after weeks of consultation with senior City lawyers, will see the group finally press to take on a mainstream representative role for commercial lawyers.

Legal Week

06 Oct

Court imposes Asbo on solicitor

A woman has been become the first lawyer to be made the subject of an anti-social behaviour order.
Colette Cowap, 38, of Dobson Avenue, Lytham, Lancs, was given the order by Blackpool magistrates on Wednesday. The order says the solicitor, who specialised in personal injury cases, muist (sic) not abuse or intimidate anyone.

BBC

05 Oct

'We'll be judged by our failures, not successes'
By Frances Gibb
HM Customs and Revenue has taken a highly unusual look at itself

Times Online

05 Oct

Online Lawsuits Fuel Debate in France

Online Lawsuits Fire Up French Class Action Debate; Consumer Groups Trying to Shut Site Down.

ABC News

05 Oct

French class action site in trouble

A WEB site which is designed to help people take part in class actions, is getting up the noses of the French establishment. Jean-Marc Goldnadel set up the site, classaction.fr, after the French government decided to allow US-style class actions in that country.

Inquirer

05 Oct

Falconer keeps new law chief waiting

Lord Phillips, the new Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, was kept standing in an alley for 10 minutes yesterday while he waited for breakfast with Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor.

Telegraph

04 Oct

Mill dismisses Clementi research on professionalism

THE chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland has dismissed government-commissioned research findings suggesting lawyers in firms owned by non-lawyers would be at less risk of acting unprofessionally than in practices owned solely by lawyers.

The Herald

03 Oct

The Law Society has announced the members of two new boards to oversee consumer complaints and regulation. The Consumer Complaints Board and the Regulation Board will be responsible for the policy and operations of the Law Society's complaints handling and regulation functions respectively.

The Lawyer

03 Oct

Fraud trial reforms set to go ahead

Ministers are determined to press ahead this month with plans to abolish trial by jury for complex fraud cases, challenging opponents of the move to come up with another solution that would allow effective prosecutions.

Financial Times

03 Oct

The conmen and the green professor

FROM the gleaming blue glass windows in the flashy Heathrow Boulevard office complex, Dr Stephen Nathan and John Rees could survey a brave new world ripe for exploitation...

It was an unwise venture for the professor. In 1993 Nathan was convicted of stealing £135,000 from clients and was jailed for one year — an offence the Law Society described as the “tip of a large iceberg” when it struck him off. Full article link on right:

Times Online

03 Oct

M'learned members to go on 'strike' over pay cuts

The criminal justice system in England and Wales could be thrown into chaos when thousands of barristers go on "strike" from tomorrow.

Telegraph

Sea also: BBC

03 Oct

Ex-solicitor charged over theft

A 70-year-old former solicitor has been charged with stealing over £100,000 from his law practice in Belfast.

BBC

30 Sept