When solicitors prepare fee notes for clients, the VAT treatment of expenses they have incurred is not, in all probability, a matter high on the priority list. Yet failure to appreciate the difference between expenses and disbursements may result in clients receiving higher bills than necessary. Moreover, if those clients are private individuals, businesses or […]
DENTON Hall has lost the head of its tax department to US firm Sidley & Austin’s expanding City operation. Tax specialist Drew Scott, an equity partner with Denton Hall since 1988, will be moving to the US firm once his leaving terms are finalised. He will be charged with setting up a tax department and […]
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) has been accused of riding rough-shod over the consultation process on legal aid reform. President of the Law Society Charles Elly says the board has “endangered its political neutrality by acting as a cheerleader for controversial ministerial ideas”. Elly’s criticisms follow LAB recruitment advertisements which assume that block contracts will […]
The trial is scheduled to begin at the Old Bailey this week of Londoner Barry Mutton who is accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl, raping her and then dumping her at a motorway service station. And on 27 February the trial is due to begin, also at the Old Bailey, of Milton Wheeler who is […]
The High Court is set for challenges to the legality of bans on shipment of live veal calves out of Humberside International Airport. No date has been fixed for the hearing, but it could be heard in conjunction with a similar action involving a ban at Coventry Airport scheduled for 20 March.
Law firms have been taking on more work but are being paid less, a recent survey reveals. Extra revenue from growth in 1994 has been partly wiped out by price-cutting, according to the latest survey by the Centre for Interfirm Comparison. Statistics show that the profession is gradually moving out of recession and the signs […]
Tim Miller Bexley Council is being challenged in the courts after slashing home care hours for a quadraplegic. Carer Pamela Butt has been granted leave to apply for judicial review of the local authority’s decision. It is alleged that Bexley overlooked guidance which forces councils to re-assess a case before care is reduced. The authority […]
The Lord Chancellor has made several judicial appointments. Hugh Bennett QC is to be a High Court judge in the family division. Recorder John Fraser is to be made a judge on the South East circuit and District Judge Rubery is to be assigned to the Midland and Oxford circuit.
A EUROPEAN law firm network says its expansion means it can now rival the top UK international firms. The Punder Group says its membership has almost doubled in size as a result of signing up three new members from Belgium, France and The Netherlands. It now includes about 350 lawyers, notaries and tax advisers. The […]
THE LAW Society wants to hear from all solicitors who are instructed by victims of mis-sold personal pension products, to decide whether it should involve its multi-party action co-ordination service. Edwina Dunn, head of information services and in charge of the co-ordination service, says the society will, at the very least, help to provide information […]
Tim Miller The Law Society’s local government group is staging its annual weekend school next month. The three-day event, which will cover a number of topics including highway law, joint ventures, tendering and housing, will be held at Warwick University from 23-26 March. Paul Boateng MP will give the keynote speech.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies has appointed Avrom Sherr as the first full-time Woolf Chair of Legal Education. The new post, in honour of Alexander and Leah Woolf, parents of the Rt Hon Lord Woolf, will place the institute at the centre of research and development in legal education. Sherr is currently Professor of […]