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News in Brief

27 March 2008 / John Cooper KC
Issue: 7314 / Categories: Legal News , Public , Community care , Constitutional law
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The NLJ Column

WOOLER RE-APPOINTED

The attorney general has reappointed Stephen Wooler as HM Chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate until 31 March 2010.

 

SECRETARIAL CAREERS

Legal secretaries are to have their own national competency standards and career structure for the first time. More than 40 law firms, legal regulatory bodies and other organisations are involved in the plans, which have been drawn up by the in partnership with the Council for Administration. The standards are set at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels to match typical secretarial career development.

 

COMPLAINTS HANDLING

How chambers handle complaints will be monitored under a series of measures approved by the Bar Standards Board. Ruth Evans, the board’s chairman, says: “Chambers should be the first point of contact for dissatisfied clients and as such their complaints procedures need to be transparent, independent and fair.”

 

DRIVING SAFELY

The European Commis sion has revealed legislative plans to improve road safety and cross-border prosecution of traffic offences. Under the proposed Directive adopted earlier this month, EU drivers will potentially be identified and prosecuted for offences committed in a member state other than the one in which their vehicle is registered. Currently, a driver committing a highway code offence in a car registered in another EU country escapes prosecution. The proposed Directive, IP/08/464, covers speeding, drinkdriving, not wearing a seat belt and failing to stop at a red light—factors which are involved in nearly three-quarters of all road deaths. Jacques Barot, the Commission’s vice-president, says: “In 2001 we set ourselves the goal of reducing by half the number of deaths on our roads over a 10-year period. If we are to reach this target, we need to make additional efforts now.”

 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
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