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A skeleton in the cupboard

21 October 2010
Issue: 7438 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury
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Many commentators have reflected that the trade in cases, especially those of accident victims, between lawyers and referrers is unseemly, if not downright dodgy.

Integrity, inherent dislike & embarrassment. Jon Robins revisits the referral fee conundrum

Many commentators have reflected that the trade in cases, especially those of accident victims, between lawyers and referrers is unseemly, if not downright dodgy. Just the mention of the old Claims Direct (Shames Direct, as The Sun would have it) and TAG, both now bust, will remind lawyers of the scandal of genuine accident victims left penniless after damages were consumed by sundry legal expenses.

Guilty without trial

The Mail on Sunday earlier this year ran a report about conveyancing solicitors paying estate agents “bribes” to get work leaving “ordinary consumers, who ultimately pay for it…being ripped off”. “This is no different from paying dodgy sheiks for arms contracts and it undermines the integrity of the profession,” one non-paying lawyer told the MoS. Slightly overstating the case possibly; but the payment of referral fees is a debate

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan—Andrew Savage

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan—Andrew Savage

Firm expands London disputes practice with senior partner hire

Druces—Lisa Cardy

Druces—Lisa Cardy

Senior associate promotion strengthens real estate offering

Charles Russell Speechlys—Robert Lundie Smith

Charles Russell Speechlys—Robert Lundie Smith

Leading patent litigator joins intellectual property team

NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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