Labour is courting the Association of Solicitor Investment Managers with its taxation proposals, reports Mick Kavanagh Andrew Smith, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has added law firms to the Labour Party’s “cocktail offensive” by addressing members of the Association of Solicitor Investment Managers (ASIM) at their annual conference. Smith, who was the keynote speaker […]
– The Portman Building Society has launched a fourth issue of its Step-Up Bond with a minimum investment of just £500. Gross rates of return increase from seven per cent in the first year to 10 per cent in year four. The launch of the bond follows the rec
The Law Commission has called for the admission of hearsay evidence in courts as part of a radical change in criminal evidence rules. Commissioners want a new clear definition of hearsay which will be used when the “interests of justice require it”. Stephen Silber QC, the commissioner responsible for the project, says the move would […]
A report on the conduct of former Westminster City solicitor Matthew Ives was due out this week. John Magill, the council’s district auditor, was set to deliver his view on the part played by Ives in the controversial ‘designated sales’ housing policy
TIES between the Law Society and the College of Law may be loosened if council members approve a proposal to relinquish Chancery Lane’s stronghold on the college board. The proposal, put forward by the society’s strategy committee, will go before council at this Thursday’s meeting. If passed it will mean the council will give up […]
LAWYERS seeking clarification of Labour’s ‘Access to justice’ policy document are meeting the party’s legal affairs spokesman Paul Boateng MP to air their views. The Young Labour Lawyers (YLL) meet Boateng this week to discuss how Labour’s policy paper, recently approved by the party’s National Executive Committee, will affect vocational legal training. YLL chair Mark […]
Is the change in rules governing corporate bond investment in PEPs liberal enough? Changes in Inland Revenue rules allowing the use of corporate bond investment in PEPs came into force last week (6 July), amid concerns by law firms that the shift in rules may not prove liberal enough. Tony Gammon is investment manager at […]
The prospect of a global moratorium on Lloyd’s action group hearings has receded. The idea was put forward by D J Freeman, which told the Commercial Court that action groups with trial dates set before the finalisation of the Lloyd’s settlement offer were effectively prevented from considering it because of the importance of retaining their […]
NORTH Yorkshire County Council discriminated against three dinner ladies by refusing to pay them salaries on a par with male counterparts, the House of Lords ruled last week. The women, who won their appeal before Lords Slynn, Keith, Browne-Wilkinson, Nicholls and Steyn, were chosen by their union Unison as test cases for 1,300 colleagues who […]
Titmuss Sainer Dechert advised sponsor/broker Beeson Gregory over the Stock Exchange listing of Gradus Group
SOLICITOR advocates are calling on the Law Society to push for changes to the Lord Chancellor’s Crown Court graduated fee proposals to stop barristers getting the upper hand. The move coincides with a Bar Council announcement that it has reached agreement over graduated fees and expects them to be implemented shortly. The Law Society, however, […]
LAWYERS defending Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, former president of Malawi, have raised serious doubts over whether he or other defendants charged with the 1983 murders of four politicians will ever receive a fair trial. Memery Crystal partners Bernard Clarke and Harvey Rands, who were instructed to act for Banda and two of the five other […]