Month: November 2010
-
Focus on quality
The Chair of the LSB’s consumer panel has called for an increased focus on quality in the provision in legal services. Dianne Hayter said that a lack of checking of the quality of work, and “light touch” requirements for lawyers to show continuing competence, suggested that regulators as well as consumers were making “heroic assumptions”…
-
No to City rates
A number of readers of the Legal Costs Blog receive this via email or feeds. They will therefore usually miss out on some of the interesting comments that are added by those who read online. On a previous post, on the subject of whether personal injury work should attract “City rates”, Jacques Hughes provided an…
-
The disappearing middle
A recent article in The Economist (see link) discussed the phenomenon that in rich countries since the 1990s employment in middle-income jobs has begun to decline as a share of the total whilst the share of both low and high-skilled jobs has risen. The article speculates that the reason for this change is the development…
-
Costs Management in Civil Litigation Conference
On 23rd November 2010 Thirty Nine Essex Street Chambers, Ellis Grant and Feesability are hosting a conference on Costs Management in Civil Litigation (see download). Speakers include Lord Justice Jackson. Unlike some commentators, I’m not convinced that costs management is going to be the saviour of the legal costs profession. However, it is likely to…
-
Absent minded solicitors
The US tax system gives various benefits to those with dependants. The more dependants, the lower the final tax bill will be. Previously, tax payers had to do no more than give the names of their dependants in their tax return to benefit. In 1987 a change was made so that tax payers had to…
-
Legal costs seminar
I see that Dr Mark Friston & Professor Dominic Regan are giving a seminar on the future of the legal marketplace and the impact of Gibbon on Part 36 settlements at the end of the month for those up North (see link).
-
MoJ Jackson consultation paper published
The Ministry of Justice’s consultation paper on implementing Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals has now been published. This contains some interesting suggestions for minor amendments to Jackson’s recommendations but the main thrust of the consultation is that recoverability of success fees and ATE premiums will end combined with the introduction of qualified one-way costs shifting and…
-
Tweet tweet
There has been a long-running debate on the Law Society’s LinkedIn Group on the question of “what do Solicitors Practices really have to tweet about”. I have to admit that I have never really understood the whole Twitter concept, especially for a law firm (and this would include law costs draftsmen). There are a number…
-
The next costs QC?
Dominic Regan’s Blog tips Mark Friston as one of a handful of spectacular prospects at the junior bar who will soon become silks. Dr Friston is also about to be elevated to Costs Lawyer status. I wonder which prospect excites him most.
-
Major Oxford Study into Litigation Funding and Costs
Dr Christopher Hodges and Professor Stefan Vogenauer of Oxford University have just published a major international study into litigation funding and costs. The project has already proven influential in contributing to the Review of Civil Litigation Costs in England and Wales conducted by Lord Justice Jackson earlier this year. The authors go on to recommend…