Independent: Expenses-row MP dismisses ‘house ban’ claim

Expenses-row MP dismisses ‘house ban’ claim

Independent: The head of the Commons committee that deals with MPs’ expenses abuse dismissed an allegation that his wife banned him from the constituency home he claimed for as “akin to Harry Potter” today.

Tory MP David Curry admitted having an affair but defended his record on expenses after being forced to stand down pending an inquiry.

Times: Experts can be named in family cases

Experts can be named in family cases

Times: Expert witnesses in family cases are to be named under the next stage of opening up the family courts to the media, although social workers’ anonymity will be protected, ministers have announced.

Jack Straw intends a two-stage process in which the media will initially be denied the right to publish sensitive material under proposed legislation for the next Parliamentary session.

Under the first phase, which will last 18 months, the media will be able to name professional expert witnesses but not social workers, unless judges direct otherwise.

Times: Fitness test probes strength of new law firms

Fitness test probes strength of new law firms

Times: People or companies who buy up law firms under the imminent “Big Bang” of the legal profession will have to pass an a special test to prove their “fitness to own” under plans outlined today.

They will have to pass a test of probity and of their financial position including a declaration of any criminal convictions, pending criminal charges and any disciplinary action.

They must also declare any insolvency or undischarged bankruptcy.

The proposed new rules are published by the Legal Services Board in readiness for changes what will open up the legal services market.

Under the Legal Services Act 2007, old restrictions are swept away and lawyers and other professionals can set up in new mixed practices together.

Guardian: EU gets Belgian president and British foreign minister as Blair bows out

EU gets Belgian president and British foreign minister as Blair bows out

Guardian: Europe’s eight-year quest to establish a simpler and more democratic regime came to a dramatic climax tonight when the Belgian prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, and Britain’s Cathy Ashton, were appointed as the two top officials embodying the new system.

In a surprise move that saw Gordon Brown abandon his campaign to have Tony Blair made first president of the European Council, Lady Ashton, the current European commissioner for trade, became Europe’s foreign minister or high representative for foreign and security policy.

Rompuy, a Flemish Christian Democrat, who had been Belgium’s prime minister for less than a year, became president of the European Council, the first permanent leader who will chair EU summits and represent the EU abroad.

Guardian: UK lawyers fight to save nine-year-old boy from deportation to Iran

UK lawyers fight to save nine-year-old boy from deportation to Iran

Guardian: Mother says family faces jail in Tehran for possessing extracts from Satanic Verses and criticising regime

Times: Grandmother wins Supreme Court ruling on care of three-year-old boy

Grandmother wins Supreme Court ruling on care of three-year-old boy

Times: A woman has won a legal battle over the care of her three-year-old grandson after the Supreme Court reversed rulings that he should live with his father.

In a ruling that strengthens the claims of grandparents to care for a grandchild, justices in Britain’s highest court ruled that where there is a dispute over custody, the child’s welfare takes precedence over the interests of biological parents.

Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, giving the decision, said that the appeal had again raised the “vexed but highly important topic” of the significance of parenthood in private law disputes about residence and contact.

Times: New Digital Bill unlikely to become law before election, warn Tories

New Digital Bill unlikely to become law before election, warn Tories

Times: Sweeping reforms to combat internet piracy, secure the future of public service broadcasting and extend digital radio are unlikely to pass into law, the Conservatives have warned.

Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said that the Government would be “cutting it very fine” by trying to get the Digital Economy Bill through Parliament before an election. He did not think that the legislation would pass, even with Tory support.

The Conservatives back most of the proposals, which include disconnecting persistent internet pirates and facilitating the launch of services such as Google Books. But Mr Hunt said the party still had strong opposition to sections of the Bill that proposed using public money to fund regional news on commercial broadcasters.

Law Society gazette: Bar Standards Board opens door to joint practices

Bar Standards Board opens door to joint practices

Law Society Gazette: Barristers and solicitors will be able to go into practice together as a first step on the post-Clementi road, following a historic meeting of the Bar Standards Board last night.

The board met to consider recommendations from its working group on alternative business structures to determine how barristers should be allowed to practise in light of the Legal Services Act.

Barristers will be allowed to be partners in legal disciplinary practices (LDPs), but the board deferred making any decision on allowing them to practise in ABSs (due to be introduced in 2011) until the Legal Services Board has issued further guidance on licensing rules.

Lady Deech, the board’s chair, said: ‘What we’ve done will excite a lot of the profession that’s been depressed lately by legal aid cuts. It will send a shot of adrenaline through the profession. Hopefully they’ll revive and perk up as a result.’

At the start of the meeting, Lady Deech stressed the importance of maintaining the many impressive qualities of the bar, including its independent and collegiate spirit and the cab rank rule.

But, she said: ‘We understand that the time has come to allow the bar to operate in different ways to suit the public. It’s good for the public and for the rule of law.’

Times: The Bill’s in brief: Labour’s plans for new laws

The Bill’s in brief: Labour’s plans for new laws

Times:

Times: Braced for the big bang and Tesco law

Braced for the big bang and Tesco law

Times: The opening up of the legal services market brings with it opportunities and threats as new players seek to establish themselves

Times: Barristers claim unfair secrecy as board debates ban on partnerships

Barristers claim unfair secrecy as board debates ban on partnerships

Times: Hundreds of years of tradition may be ditched today when the ban on barristers joining in partnership with other professionals is lifted.

The decision, to be taken at a public meeting by the Bar Standards Board, the profession’s regulator, has provoked furious controversy because key papers have not been released in advance.

At present barristers cannot form partnerships with each other or with solicitors, and neither can form partnerships with other professionals such as accountants or surveyors. The Legal Services Act paves the way for a complete shake-up in the legal market and sweeps away current restrictions.

Some barristers are accusing the board of acting unfairly and unlawfully over its refusal to release the confidential papers and have hinted at the threat of legal action. They are angry that the board will not allow them sight of the papers and recommendations — as allowed to all 15 members of the board — before the meeting takes place.

Guardian: Judge allows secret services to hide evidence in civil lawsuits

Judge allows secret services to hide evidence in civil lawsuits

Guardian:

• Ruling prompted by UK Guantánamo torture cases
• Lawyers decry attack on basic principle of law

Law Society Gazette: Legal Services Board issues proposals on ABS regulation

Legal Services Board issues proposals on ABS regulation

Law Society Gazette: The Legal Services Board has published a consultation paper outlining the core principles it expects all licensing authorities (LAs) to use in regulating alternative business structures, as it moves towards the next stage in liberalising the delivery of legal services.

The paper proposes removing restrictions that have, until now, prevented non-lawyers from owning legal services businesses. The new rules will mean lawyers will be able to provide their services alongside services from non-lawyers, and will allow legal practices to attract external investment.

Times: Planned legislation extends FSA powers

Planned legislation extends FSA powers

Times: The Financial Services Authority is to get new powers that will allow it to seize data from hedge funds.

The City regulator will receive its new remit in proposed legislation outlined in the Queen’s Speech today.

Ministers believe that changes to the regulator’s remit will be crucial in tackling any future financial crises.

Crucially, the Bill will include a requirement for banks to produce “living wills” to assist regulators in the event of an institution collapsing.

Independent: Why were expenses spared? PM asked

Why were expenses spared? PM asked

Independent: The anti-sleaze watchdog attacked Gordon Brown last night for failing to include new legislation to clean up MPs’ expenses in the Queen’s Speech.

Independent: Exclusive: Ashcroft’s bank lent millions to disgraced premier

Exclusive: Ashcroft’s bank lent millions to disgraced premier

Independent: Loans helped fund Turks and Caicos leader’s lavish lifestyle; Alarm raised over Tory donor’s influence if Cameron wins power

Guardian: Franco-German deal on European council president causes anger

Franco-German deal on European council president causes anger

Guardian: Germany and France are to strike a deal on who they want for the coveted post of first permanent European council president, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced today, sparking anger in other European capitals over a feared Franco-German stitch-up.

With 27 EU leaders going into a special summit tomorrow increasingly at odds over the twin posts of European Council president and EU foreign minister, Merkel stated for the first time that she and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, intended to agree on a common candidate, believed to be Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister.

Times: Fitness test probes strength of new law firms

Fitness test probes strength of new law firms

Times: People or companies who buy up law firms under the imminent “Big Bang” of the legal profession will have to pass an a special test to prove their “fitness to own” under plans outlined today.

They will have to pass a test of probity and of their financial position including a declaration of any criminal convictions, pending criminal charges and any disciplinary action.

They must also declare any insolvency or undischarged bankruptcy.

The proposed new rules are published by the Legal Services Board in readiness for changes what will open up the legal services market.

Under the Legal Services Act 2007, old restrictions are swept away and lawyers and other professionals can set up in new mixed practices together.

The new practices can have outside investment and the outside owners can have 100 per cent ownership, raising the prospect of retailers such as the Co-op owning law firms.

Times: In the City: no holds barred as solicitors and insurers let fly

In the City: no holds barred as solicitors and insurers let fly

Times: It was mid-afternoon last Friday in a very wet Russell Square in London when suddenly the fireworks started. I hadn’t realised just how incendiary meetings of the Motor Accidents Solicitors Society could be. But suddenly a session on the dodgy-sounding topic of “Third Party Capture” erupted into an exchange of vicious allegations and recriminations between insurers and solicitors. The effect can only be described as a conference-style version of The Jerry Springer Show.

So what had seemed initially to be a mild spat degenerated into mutual mud-slinging as the two groups inveighed against each other around the notion of who was allegedly fleecing the client more viciously.

Times: Don’t doom Bridget Jones to life without a partner

Don’t doom Bridget Jones to life without a partner

Times: Unmarried couples should have new legal rights — or should they? The prevailing consensus is very much in favour: many believe that the law should reflect changing times and that at present it creates hardship.

But that view took a battering this week when a leading family lawyer condemned the idea of new rights for cohabitants, warning that they would be a “windfall for lawyers” and would force couples into a traditional marriage mould against their wishes.

The proposed new rights, argued Baroness Deech, Gresham Professor of Law, would be “bad for Bridget Jones”, the fictional singleton whose diary charted her love life, and for “commitment, stability and children”.

The Law Commission has recently published proposals that would give cohabiting couples some automatic inheritance rights should one partner die without leaving a will: at present, if you live with your partner but are not married or in a civil partnership, you are not automatically entitled to any of their wealth. Spouses, on the other hand, are entitled to the first £250,000 worth of their partner’s possessions if they die intestate.