Hypocrite’s Corner 21st December 2009 Law Society Gazette – 17th December 2009
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that ‘everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time’.
The European Court of Human Rights has a backlog of 120,000 cases waiting up to seven years to be heard.
Festive photographs halted by the police 2nd December 2009 The Daily Telegraph
An amateur photographer taking pictures of Christmas lights has been questioned by the police under anti-terrorism laws. Andrew White, 33, was tailed and then stopped by two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. Mr White had taken a few photos of the decorations in the town centre on his digital camera, but was then approached by the officers and asked to hand over his personal details, including his name and address.
Mr White remarked that, although the officers were polite, he was concerned about where his details would end up. He also questioned the need for the police to intervene, saying that “I only took one or two photos, but even if I had taken more, who are they to say what is too many? I don’t think that taking too many photos in the street warrants being considered some kind of terrorist threat, which is what they were suggesting”.
The Police Reform Act 2002 allows the police to demand the details of a person suspected of committing a criminal offence. But is the use of the power in these circumstances really justified? Mr White certainly doesn’t think so. He added “I think the money spent on getting PCSOs to waste my time and harass me in the street could be better spent elsewhere”.
Cameron pledge to halt 1st December 2009 The Daily Telegraph
David Cameron will promise today to tackle the compensation culture, which he blames for fostering a paranoia over health and safety rules in schools, hospitals and other public services.
The Tory leader will pledge to rein in “ambulance-chasing lawyers” by ending the lucrative system of fees that encourages them to persue personal injury claims. Lord Young, the Tory peer, will review “over-the-top” health and safety laws to identify any which do not fullfil a ‘useful purpose’.
In a speech, Mr Cameron will say there is now a perception that someone is personally responsible for every accident but people have to accept that life involves risks. “I know the over-the-top health and safety culture that has grown in our country in recent years provokes a lot of understandable anger,” he will say. “Excessive rules have given the impression that we have a right to a risk-free life and that impression has been exacerbated by prominent claims and payouts.”
The Tories are likely to stop lawyers advertising on television and from earning big referral fees when fighting personal injury claims.
“The term ‘compensation culture’ is a toxic one in our country,” Mr Cameron will say. “Each prominent claim and payout feeds into the public perception that the threat of litigation is never far away. Businesses, organisations and individuals operate under the shadow of the worst-case scenario.”
“The more vulnerable they feel. The more cautionously they act and the more stringent their health and safetyprocesses become.”
Last night, Mr Cameron criticised what he called “Labour's pathological inability” to recognise the importance of marriage.
It comes after remarks by Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, who said marriage was not the key to a happy family. Mr Cameron said his party was committed to tax breaks for married couples.
Cameron pledge to halt ‘culture of compensation’
David Cameron will promise today to tackle the compensation culture, which he blames for fostering a paranoia over health and safety rules in schools, hospitals and other public services.
The Tory leader will pledge to rein in “ambulance-chasing lawyers” by ending the lucrative system of fees that encourages them to persue personal injury claims. Lord Young, the Tory peer, will review “over-the-top” health and safety laws to identify any which do not fullfil a ‘useful purpose’.
In a speech, Mr Cameron will say there is now a perception that someone is personally responsible for every accident but people have to accept that life involves risks. “I know the over-the-top health and safety culture that has grown in our country in recent years provokes a lot of understandable anger,” he will say. “Excessive rules have given the impression that we have a right to a risk-free life and that impression has been exacerbated by prominent claims and payouts.”
The Tories are likely to stop lawyers advertising on television and from earning big referral fees when fighting personal injury claims.
“The term ‘compensation culture’ is a toxic one in our country,” Mr Cameron will say. “Each prominent claim and payout feeds into the public perception that the threat of litigation is never far away. Businesses, organisations and individuals operate under the shadow of the worst-case scenario.”
“The more vulnerable they feel. The more cautionously they act and the more stringent their health and safetyprocesses become.”
Last night, Mr Cameron criticised what he called “Labour's pathological inability” to recognise the importance of marriage.
It comes after remarks by Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, who said marriage was not the key to a happy family. Mr Cameron said his party was committed to tax breaks for married couples.
Thousands of cases to fail to reach court 30th November 2009 The Daily Telegraph
Thousands of criminal cases fail to make it to court because of paperwork delays and other problems.
According to figures for the past three years in England and Wales, 4,000 suspects failed to appear because the Crown Prosecution Service did not get files ready in time.
The CPS said the 4,000 represented only a fifth of a per cent of the total number of criminal cases dealt with in the courts.
Railway Heath and Safety ‘Madness’ 30th November 2009 The Daily Telegraph
A mother has accused railway staff of health and safety ‘madness’ after they refused to carry her baby buggy up a flight of stairs because they were not insured to do so.
Vicky Pachner 26 was helped by a fellow passenger as she carried her 10 week old son Oliver over the footbridge at Wadhurst railway station, East Sussex. A spokesman for Southeastern Trains said staff would help passengers ‘when possible’.
Jail for Cheating Magistrate Who Claimed £18,000 in Benefits 26th November 2009 The Daily Telegraph
A cheating magistrate who was claiming more than £18,000 in benefits as he passed down sentences in court was jailed for 36 weeks yesterday.
Stephen Barker, 59, was working as a commercial fisherman even though he said he was ‘too ill to turn on a tap’.
Barker claimed he was crippled with arthritis and unable to sit, stand, kneel, climb stairs or walk 50 metres.
He also told the Department for Work and Pensions that his angina meant he was too frail to sit for long periods or even pick up a pint of milk.
But, from 2003, he became a magistrate in Plymouth, Devon, and also worked as a commercial fisherman. In addition, he failed to declare that he owned a house in Hull.
An Exeter Crown Court jury convicted him on 12 counts of fraud over a four year period which netted him a total of £18,840 in incapacity benefits, income support, housing benefit and council tax between October 2001 and May 2005.
Kerry Underwood is speaking at the Legal Process Outsourcing Seminar at the South African High Commission - 8 December 2009
The Supreme Court Decision 25th November 2009 Robert Males
The Supreme Court today made one its first high profile rulings in relation to the challenge by the Office of Fair Trading against bank charges for unauthorised overdrafts.
The High Court and the Court of Appeal had previously ruled that the OFT had the right to review the fairness of these charges but the Supreme Court has overturned that decision and in their judgment the overdraft charges are part of the overall charging package of the banks and that the OFT are not entitled to review the fairness of those charges.
The Court did not rule out other ways in which the OFT could look at the bank’s charges and did not say that they were necessarily fair and reasonable. However this is a significant blow for the customers of banks who have been arguing that these charges are unfair and excessive.
Many thousands of claims by individuals have been postponed pending the decision of the Supreme Court and so it is likely now that those claims will fail and the banks will be able to continue to charge high rates for unauthorised overdrafts.
Nicky Armstrong 14th September 2009
Nicky Armstrong has joined Underwoods Solicitors to head up the firm’s Property Department in South Africa.
Nicky has 20 years experience as an English qualified solicitor, 10 of them in major UK law firms.
Nicky Armstrong deals with commercial property work and supervises the residential conveyancing operation of Underwoods Solicitors in South Africa.
Senior Partner Kerry Underwood said
‘This is a huge boost to our groundbreaking work in having English property work done by our lawyers in South Africa. This allows us to deliver top quality service at an affordable price’
Conveyance Price Reduction 11th September 2009
Underwoods Solicitors have reduced sharply their fees for conveyancing in some cases as much as 65%.
Senior Partner Kerry Underwood said
‘By having much of the routine work done through our South African office we can maintain the extremely high standards for which we are famous but at a competitive price’.
See Property
Bleak House for 02 17th October 2008
DICKINS v O2 PLC (2008)EWCA Civ 1144
Robert Males partner and specialist personal injury solicitor successfully resisted the appeal of 02 in the Court of Appeal in the case of his clients who suffered a breakdown as a result of stress at work.
Robert says :
“ These type of cases are difficult to win following the leading judgment of Hatton v Sutherland. There are so many hurdles to overcome but we were able to do so with this case and the decision was unanimous in our client’s favour”.
The case was funded in the Court of Appeal by a conditional fee agreement (no win, no fee).
Firm breaks new ground by sending PI work to South Africa 9th October 2008 Law Society Gazette
Personal injury cases are to be outsourced to South Africa this week in the first trial of its kind, the Gazette has learned.
Hertfordshire firm Underwoods has signed a deal with an unnamed practice to test whether road traffic accident (RTA) cases that fall under the predictable costs regime can be handled properly in South Africa. If the trial is successful, the firm will look to outsource around 2,000 cases a year.
Underwoods, which is acting as the firm’s agent, charges a flat fee of £500 per case. The recoverable costs of RTA cases which settle pre-issue are £800, plus 20% of the damages figure up to £5,000 and 15% of the damages between £5,000 and £10,000; for example, £1,800 for a case worth £5,000. Even with a large referral fee, there would be a profit for the firm.
The cases are being handled by Underwoods’ associate in South Africa, but if the operation takes off, the firm intends to build its own practice there with at least 40 staff. It has set up Underwoods South Africa, a registered South African partnership based near Cape Town.
Senior partner Kerry Underwood commented: ‘I am exiling the English legal system to a place of safety where the work will be done by lawyers and controlled by lawyers and kept well away from the banks and supermarkets.’
Underwood, who will be in South Africa to supervise the first tranche of work, is targeting insurers to outsource further PI cases, and is close to another deal with a law firm to outsource conveyancing. He said he had also received enquiries about commercial work, which could be handled by South African practices under the supervision of his firm. He said he is confident of bringing in more work on the basis that ‘we can offer a higher-quality service because of a lower cost-base’.
Underwood pledged that the minimum qualification of the South African staff would be a law degree.
Matters of routine 9th October 2008 Law Society Gazette
Kerry Underwood, as many readers will know, is not a man to pull his punches. The Hertfordshire solicitor, who was at the cutting edge of ‘no win, no fee’ work, is moving into legal process outsourcing (LPO) with the claim that he is protecting clients from banks and supermarkets by allowing firms to compete effectively.
‘Now that the world knows what banks are like at running banks, let alone anything else, emergency legislation should be introduced to repeal the Legal Services Act and the absurd idea of alternative business structures,’ he tells the Gazette provocatively. That might not happen, but Underwood’s foray into LPO could have equally profound implications for smaller practices if it takes off.
Until now, talk of LPO has mainly been the preserve of commercial firms, and concerned with relatively low-level tasks. Research company ValueNotes reports that LPO in India has grown by 60% annually for the past three years. But a personal injury case being handled from start to finish from South Africa (or wherever) – however mechanistic a task that can sometimes be – takes the idea of LPO significantly further.
A positive way of looking at LPO – and indeed the developments that are beginning to flow from the Legal Services Act – is that they will enable solicitors to focus on work that genuinely requires their hard-won expertise and not those routine tasks that many people now argue you no longer need to be a qualified lawyer to perform.
Lucy Mervik Perfomances
Lucy Mervik is a talented young opera singer sponsored by Underwoods Solicitors.
More about Lucy
 Goethe’s Singspiel Erwin und Elmire
Liebhabertheater Schloss Kochberg, May 31, 2008
Festsaal des Weimarer Schlosses, June 1, 2008
in cooperation with Guildhall Schooll of Music and Drama and Freundeskreis der Klassik Stiftung Weimar
See our events page for where Lucy is performing.
Tanzanite and Diamonds June 2008
Underwoods Solicitors has teamed up with a jewellery designer and maker specializing in tanzanite and diamond products as well as other jewellery.
He will be visiting in June 2008. Please contact Kerry Underwood for more information.
Lucy Mervik Perfomances
Lucy Mervik is a talented young opera singer sponsored by Underwoods Solicitors. More about Lucy
See our events page for where Lucy is performing including a free entry concert in London.
More than 2,000 serious criminal cases thrown out 11 March 2008 The Times
More than 2,000 serious criminal cases thrown out after prosecutors were not ready.
More than 2,000 cases that should have gone to trial in the Crown Court were thrown out last year because they were not ready, a watchdog says today.
The cases involve serious offences including burglary, theft, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of drugs and possession with intent to supply drugs.
The inspectors of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) say today in their report on the performance of the service that even though this throw-out rate is better than it was, it remains poor. In total 2,325 cases were lost because prosecutors were not ready to proceed.
Church organists are employees 21 February 2008
Church organists have full employment rights, rules an Employment Tribunal. Of the 30,000 practising church organists in Britain around 100 are full-time. Most have other jobs and can expect to take home about £40 per week from their organ work.
Traditionally the courts have treated people working for the church, including vicars, as people with a calling but recent decisions have moved away from that idea and regard those involved with the churches on a paid basis as having full employment rights.
Solicitors hit for £30 million 20th February 2008 Law Society Gazette 14th February 2008
Kerry Underwood, interviewed in the Law Society Gazette, criticized the now lawful practice of solicitors paying referral fees to insurance companies and the RAC and AA.
Solicitors firms are paying £700 or more for each road traffic case.
Kerry Underwood said:
“The key issue still remains and that is whether referral fees are appropriate. My view is that they are not. What you.....lose is what is actually valuable about the rule of law, independence, the people who will fight.....”
The interview came as news emerged that 600 firms of solicitors associated with The Accident Group are to pay back an average of £50,000.00 each in relation to illegal referral fees and other matters.
Underwoods Solicitors does not pay for work.
Underwoods appointed to Headway list 8 February 2008
Underwoods has been appointed as a member of Headway's Personal Injury Solicitors list 2008 after assessment by Headway as meeting the necessary criteria for inclusion.
Headway, the Brain Injury Association is a leading charity that supports people affected by brain injury.
www.headway.org.uk
Victory for miners 8 February 2008 The Times
Law firms that grew rich by exloiting sick miners are to be forced to repay tens of millions of pounds that they wrongly sliced from their clients' compensation.
Online Payments
Underwoods are one of the first solicitors in the UK to accept payments online. Senior partner Kerry Underwood - "Our aim is to eliminate the use of cheques by the end of 2008".
Manchester United Supporters Trust
Underwoods instructed by Manchester United Supporters Trust over ongoing dispute with Manchester United Football Club over season ticket prices.
Underwoods to go electronic 9 March 2007
Underwoods Solicitors have announced that all clients are to have the option of having 24-7 secure electronic access to their files, with every piece of work done on the file to be notified to the client by immediate email alert. It is believed to be the first law firm in the world to offer automatic email notification. Senior Partner Kerry Underwood said:
“Clients are entitled to know what is going on – it is the client’s case not the solicitors. We already set the standard for client care - now we will set the standard for keeping clients informed.”
Underwoods profiled on The Lawyer.com
Click here to read the Underwoods profile on The Lawyer.com website
Kerry Underwood pioneers offshoring
Click on articles to read more..
Pioneering solicitor claims offshore work will revolutionise the profession – Gazette 23 June 2005
Passage to India - Gazette 23 June 2005
When outsourcing outstrips itself - Gazette 23 June 2005
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