There is a new trend that Law firms have begun in England and Wales where these firms are trying to form a Supermarket network where these firms are taking on malls and even banks and such establishments on the High Street. Quality Solicitors is the brand that has been developed in an effort for all these Law firms that have signed up to re-launch themselves. There have already been about two hundred law firms that have signed up with this brand to form this kind of a network all around England and Wales. What they intend to do is offer absolutely no-strings-attached and minus all the frills of legal advice for their clients as far as family law and even consumer and contract legal disputes are concerned.
There are already fifteen branches of this brand that have been created and set up and there will be more than thirty of the same that are going to be set up in a few more months, by August they plan on being completely settled down. This is an attempt that is being made by the brand to compete and get a head start against the other Halifax as well as co-op Supermarket chain that are very soon going to set off and take launch in the legal market very soon.
This Co-op that is going to begin soon has already started hiring solicitors and they have already expected to earn around two hundred million pounds within a few years at least, all this one of the first real results of the Legal Service Act that was passed in 2007.
The basic aim of all these network of solicitors is to create on a national basis a network of legal help that can become a household name for basic legal advice and help so that one doesn’t have to research through hundreds of legal firms to find a reliable one.

It has recently been found out that a Yorkshire tycoon who had been charged for fraud and that too multimillion pounds in amount has actually been acquitted, this after having been charged of this fraud for the past three years.
The man in question is Simon Morris, he used to be the director of the Leeds United Football Club and was in fact one of the richest young men in the UK whose fortunes spanned to over seventy million pounds, however his empire failed in 2008 and that is when he was charged of this fraud as well. The fraud was caught by the West Yorkshire Police with the help of the Serious Fraud Office after he was being accused with allegations of fraud related to property as well as mortgage payments. However the SFO (Serious Fraud Office) has very recently declared that they had to drop their charges against him because of the lack of evidence and so could not hold any criminal case against Mr. Morris any longer.
Mr. Morris is one of the youngest entrepreneurs in Britain to amass as much wealth and property as he has, which is over hundreds of properties and all this within the age of thirty three, which he is now. However, his company collapsed in 2008 because of the huge amount of debt he ended up incurring, which was around fifty million pounds approximately. He also became the youngest director of the Leeds United Football Club in 2004, however he lost out soon to Ken Bates who was its chairman in the middle of all the power struggle.
Morris has stated that though he feels relief with the statement of his release from investigation, he is not exactly celebrating because of all the devastation that the investigation has caused in his professional and personal life.

Even though the news in the industry is that law firms are not exactly enthusiastic about hiring new associates, some firms might actually disagree with this, because hiring non partners is probably going to be on the rise again. This is at least what many firms around the USA are confirming as well as recruiters. However, the only thing that might end up causing problems for this kind of uptake in the industry is that many firms are protesting against the commission that all recruiters consider as standard when they place associates in these law firms.
The usual commission that these recruiters ask for is a 25% to 30% fee from the first month’s salary of the associate that they are placing, at least in the major legal markets. These law firms have already proclaimed that they will be reducing the commission fees to not more than 12%. However, although there have already been many recruitment firms that have faced such cut backs they still claim that these are only temporary and will soon increase. These recruitment agencies believe that this kind of a dismal condition is basically because of the slack in the economy and will change very soon when the economy is fair again and the law forms start competing again against each other for good quality associates.
There is of course also the claim from many recruitment agencies that this kind of reduction in the commission is not exactly a tidal change and most of them are claiming that they have not even been asked to reduce their commission by the firms they are placing associates in. So, while some recruiting agencies claim that this lowering of rates by the law firms is only a short term arrangement many are also claiming that this is basically nonexistent.

A recent study shows that at least 55 percent of criminal offences are dealt with outside the courts of justice. The study also shows that on-the-spot fines exceed the amount of 200,000 pounds a year, and that at least one fifth of offenders who breach the conditional cautions are not pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service. A select committee of the Commons showed this as a change in the concept of a criminal justice system.
Such a change, say experts, is dangerous not just for the concept and idea of justice itself, but also for the magistrates’ courts’ summary jurisdictions. Thus one must take a step back, review to problem, and arrest the cause of damage.
A nation is defined by many things. Among these things, it is defines by how it responds to lawlessness. Today, the levels of crime, antisocial behavior, and prison numbers is on the ride – thus the Government seems to have resorted to out-of-court measures, and other desperate measures, in an effort to maintain laws. But this also means that traditional procedures are being done away with, that resource-driven policies are placing the system more importantly than the fair practice needs. So crime figures are made to look more appealing, and the performance targets seem much easier to meet!
However, now, for even serious offences like violence, repeated cautions are being given- sometimes the offenders do not even face charges! The police are supported by a third tier of assorted officials to make use of their powers, and they give out instant justice of their own, on a take it or leave it basis. There is no transparency, no compensation – indeed, gone are the days of consistency, argument and mitigation, not to mention the procedure of testing.

China has hit two Human Rights lawyers with a lifetime ban – these lawyers represented a member of an outlawed spiritual movement. This lifetime ban is expected to prevent other lawyers from taking on human rights cases of a sensitive nature. The two lawyers, Tang Jitian and Liu Wei, said on the phone that the Beijing judicial authorities had told them on Friday that their credentials would be null void. This ruling is going to be permanent, but both lawyers intend to make an appeal before the court.

This ruling comes amidst widespread oppression on lawyers in China. In fact, authorities in China tend to come crashing down on anything which could remotely be seen as dissent – and the government is said to be increasingly worried about the assertiveness of the lawyers of the country. In fact, many lawyers have faced punishment for working with sensitive issues like the Falun Gong – the spiritual movement which has been banned as an evil cult by the communist government. This was done because apparently it would pose a serious threat to the authority of the state.

Tang said that some judicial authorities unfortunately were not only obstinate, but also conservative. He said that this ruling was probably a message to other lawyers to scare them.

Separate notices were uploaded by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, for Liu and Tang, announcing that they had lost their licenses. The notices stated that the lawyers had disobeyed court personnel, and not only that – had created chaos in the courtroom by disrupting the order, during the April 2009 trial in the Sichuan province, at the Luxhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court.

The lawyers claim that during the trial, they were illegally videotaped, interrupted time after time by the judge, and then they walked out of the courtroom after objecting to being videotaped – this is illegal in Chinese courtrooms. Then the court became chaotic.