All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1530
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News
Commission's conclusions should return assisted dying debate to moral realms
by Eduardo Reyes, Gazette features editor The report on assisted dying, produced by a ‘commission’ formed by thinktank Demos, and part-funded by author and campaigner Terry Pratchett, made headlines last week for stating that there were practical ways that the existing law on suicide could be ...
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PI firms inundated over banned implants
Personal injury firms say they are receiving hundreds of enquiries every week from women treated with now banned PIP breast implants. Up to 40,000 women in the UK have been fitted with implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese. The Department of Health has offered ...
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Bar chair counsels cooperation
An independent referral bar is in the public interest and has an ‘assured future’, despite increasing competition and changing working practices, according to its new chair. In an interview with Gazette Online, Michael Todd QC said solicitors see value in the continuation of the independent bar. ‘The bar doesn’t want ...
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LSC blamed by Jewels for closure
A West Midlands family legal aid firm has blamed delays in payment by the Legal Services Commission for forcing it into administration. Jewels, founded in 1980 by sole director Mark Jewels (pictured), ceased trading on 28 December. The Lexcel-accredited firm, ...
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Bottoms and broomsticks
Surveying the dismal content of Berezovsky v Abramovich, Obiter can’t help feeling a little nostalgic for great court cases of the past. Our favourite, of course, is the 1961 ‘Lady Chatterley trial’, R v Penguin Books Ltd. What’s not to like about a trial where ...
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McNally brushes off LASPO criticism as ‘report fatigue’
Justice minister Lord McNally (pictured) has dismissed a wave of criticism of the impact of legal aid cuts by saying the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is starting to suffer from ‘report fatigue’.
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Cameron told: ‘engage with profession on PI’
The Law Society has urged David Cameron to engage with the legal profession following his attack on the health and safety ‘monster’ and personal injury fees. In a speech last week, the prime minister proposed capping fees for personal injury claims at £25,000 and including ...
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David Cameron cannot impose ‘industry-led’ solutions on disputes
The British public’s relationship with ‘health and safety’ is complex. Health and safety ‘culture’ is blamed for stifling economic growth and preventing volunteers from engaging in beneficial civic and community activities. Yet when things go wrong, in care homes, hospitals, banks, or fun fairs, the cry goes up: where was ...
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Court statistics ‘support case for reform’, government says
Care proceedings take on average more than a year to resolve, statistics released for the first time by the Ministry of Justice have revealed. New data on the average length of civil and criminal cases published this week from the third quarter of 2011 showed that care proceedings took an ...
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Casting a net
Never let it be said that the Law Society is old-fashioned. Our leaders know there is more to social media than a coffee in the Chancery Lane Reading Room - indeed they’ve even noticed the existence of Twitter and Facebook. Last week the Society issued practice ...
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HSBC conveyancing panel size 'could harm consumer choice'
Concerns are growing that the restricted size of HSBC’s new conveyancing panel may harm consumer choice. The bank launched the panel this week to provide services to residential mortgage customers. It has 43 members across the UK, 39 of which are solicitor firms and four licensed conveyancing companies. ...
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Referral fees in spotlight as MPs slam cost of whiplash claims
MPs today call for the bar to be raised if claimants are to receive compensation for whiplash injuries following motor accidents. A report by the Commons Transport Committee into the cost of motor insurance concludes that the rise in personal injury claims is the ‘main reason ...
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Immigration service users unaware of its closure
Clients of the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) remain unaware that the not-for-profit provider went into administration six months ago and are still trying to gain access to its premises, the Gazette has learned. There is no guidance information on the locked doors of the central London ...
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Commercial need
I wonder whether solicitors like your correspondent Franklin Sinclair have considered that, in the long run, they might do their clients, including the most vulnerable, more good by refusing to carry out large amounts of unpaid work for the benefit of an ungrateful taxpayer, than by flogging themselves to death ...
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SRA to consider dropping minimum wage for trainees
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to consult on whether to continue to set minimum pay rates for trainees. Current minimum salary levels for solicitors are £18,590 in central London and £16,650 outside, and have been frozen for the past two years. However the SRA board decided ...
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Habeas corpus
Jurisdiction - Prisoner of war - Claimant Pakistani national being captured by British forces in Iraq Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and another: CA (Civ Div) (Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, Lord Justices ...
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In defiance of logic
Supreme Court justice-elect Jonathan Sumption QC may be of a dazzlingly high intellectual calibre with a heady penchant for the Hundred Years War but, as Roger Smith intimates, is he so subjective in his view of the role of the state in modern Britain that he is willing to regularly ...