Legal Aid

Articles

SRA unveils pathway to ABS 'big bang'

A new 'outcomes-focused' approach will provide more effective regulation for law firms big and small, the Solicitors Regulation Authority announced as it launched 'Freedom in Practice' last week, the project which sets out the regulator's pathway to the opening up of the legal services market to ABSs in October 2011.

Straw promises single publication rule for defamation claims

Justice secretary Jack Straw has promised to introduce a single publication rule for defamation proceedings should Labour be re-elected at the general election.

Dyson LJ to become Justice of the Supreme Court

Lord Justice Dyson is to become the twelfth Justice of the Supreme Court, the prime minister has announced today.

Update: housing

Giles Peaker reviews the latest cases involving registered social landlords, possession proceedings, housing eligibility and local authority allocation policies

The legal aid time bomb

The successive bodies in charge of administering legal aid have been storing up trouble for the future, and the decision to make the Legal Services Commission an executive agency will further compound the problem, says Steve Hynes

Small criminal legal aid firms to lose contracts

A large number of small and medium-sized criminal legal aid firms would lose their contracts under the government's latest and most drastic cost-cutting plans.

Conductor's family escapes assisted suicide prosecution

The children of Sir Edward Downes, the conductor, who died with his wife at the Dignitas clinic last July, will not be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced.

Finders, keepers

By using professional probate genealogists, practitioners can save time and money as well as significantly reduce the risk of claims from missing beneficiaries, says Andrew Kidd