Category Archive Conveyancing

Nearly 1500 car drivers who had received a driving ban after being convicted of serious motoring offences were found still driving last year in London. The figure comprises 23% of the national total meaning that more people were caught in the capital than in any other part of the United Kingdom. Almost 500 were apprehended in Manchester which came in, in second place.

With a significant number of people being injured in hit-and-run accidents these figures are a cause for concern.

Suburban house prices are still increasing dramatically as buyers seek homes that match their budgets. This contrasts currently with prices in central London which have levelled off mainly due to the increase in stamp duty rates on houses that are sold for more than £1,000,000.

Bench Council has warned that families throughout England and Wales have actually felt the full brunt of the Government’s civil legal help cuts, with a drop of 15,000 per quarter, comparable to 60,000 a year, in the number of individuals getting legal aid for family cases which litigate, and 40,000 per quarter, equivalent to 160,000 a year, in the number of individuals receiving suggestions on their household law issues.

The Ministry of Justice’s own statistics for legal aid for Q2 2014 expose that because cuts to civil legal aid came into result in April 2013 under the Government’s Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act the variety of individuals getting legal representation on legal help plunged from 40,090 in January-March 2013 to 23,149 in April-June 2014, with the bulk of the cuts striking household law cases.

Nicholas Lavender QC, Chairman of the Bar, stated that The quarterly legal aid data are a welcome contribution to a more transparent approach to the workings of legal aid. They also demonstrate the complete effect of the cuts to civil legal help, which is having a profound effect on the lives of numerous vulnerable individuals across England & Wales. We alerted the Ministry of Justice that the cuts would mean that countless households would be denied access to justice and our prediction, sadly for those impacted, has become a reality.

The current quarterly figures reveal that households dealing with major concerns, such as disputes worrying children, are efficiently being shut out of the justice system. The human effects of cutting a huge part of family law out of legal aid are plainly being seen.
Previously, the Bar Council report LASPO: One Year On, discovered the impact the modifications were already having on access to justice. The official legal help statistics echo some of those workings with, states bench Council.
Source:- familylaw.co.uk

New plans planned to prevent sham marital relationships

This, together with closer joint working with registrars, has resulted in over 2,000 reports of believed sham cases between July and December 2014– up by over 80 % compared to the exact same period the year prior to (1,099).

Where a sham is believed, couples may undergo an extended notification period of 70 days, to allow investigators additional time to consider whether the proposed marriage is a sham.

The new arrangements– part of the government’s Immigration Act, which ended up being law in 2013– represent the greatest shake-up of marital relationship and civil collaboration preliminaries in recent times. The changes will give the Home Office more time to examine whether couples are trying to flout the migration system.

The latest steps to prevent sham marriages indicate that the notification period for marriage and civil collaboration has been extended from 15 days to 28 days.

The brand-new powers improve previous modifications under the Immigration Act introduced in July in 2014 which widened the duty on registrars to report thought sham marriages to the Home Office.

Migration and Security Minister James Brokenshire stated:

Non-EU nationals who try to take part or organise in a sham marriage face being right away detained until their enforced elimination. Any outstanding leave to stay can be curtailed.

The government has actually likewise presented brand-new elimination and re-entry ban powers for EU nationals who try to abuse free movement rights by participating in sham marital relationships for cash.

In between April and December 2014, the Home Office carried out over 2,000 sham marital relationship operations leading to over 1,200 arrests and more than 430 illegal immigrants have been removed from the UK as a result.

“Marriage can no longer be seen as a ‘fast track option’ for those seeking to abuse marriage to cheat their method into the UK.”.