All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1561
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Fraud fears over RTA portal fee cap
Claimant solicitors have reacted with concern to government proposals to cap at £300 the fee for low-value road traffic claims handled through the RTA portal. The proposal emerged at roundtable discussions on the future of the portal with justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) last Thursday. ...
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Carry on doctor
With reference to Jerry Pearlman’s letter of 8 March, the lady who first taught me German, on learning that I was a ‘rechtsanwalt’, insisted on calling me ‘Herr Doktor’ because she said that was how all lawyers are addressed in Germany and, as viewers of Inspector Montalbano will know, it ...
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Firms ‘must diversify to survive’ urges City investor
A City investor in the legal profession has urged firms to diversify if they want to survive. Rob Terry, founder and chief executive of the Quindell Group, which moved to acquire Liverpool personal injury firm Silverbeck Rymer in January, said multi-disciplinary practices are the best ...
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Civil procedure
Practice - Striking out - Claimant bringing claim for damages and permanent non-disclosure injunction Giggs (previously known as CTB) v News Group Newspapers Ltd and another: Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Tugendhat): 2 March 2012 ...
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LeO plans rise in compensation maximum
The Legal Ombudsman is planning a 66% rise – to £50,000 – in the maximum amount of compensation it can force lawyers to pay clients who receive poor service. It also plans a six-fold increase – to six years – in the time limit within which clients can lodge a ...
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Deputy district judge competition hit by IT glitches
Technical problems may have disadvantaged some candidates in the heavily oversubscribed deputy district judge competition, it has been alleged. The deputy district judge (magistrates’ court) selection exercise last October elicited nearly 1,500 applications for 28 vacancies – 54 candidates for each post.
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Jackson warns of compulsory electronic era
Solicitors may be forced to file documents electronically and use other IT systems to support the civil litigation reforms. Lord Justice Jackson, the reforms’ architect, devoted his 13th lecture on the reforms’ implementation last week to call for an integrated courts IT system – and ...
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Legal services outperform groceries at the Co-op
Legal services provided a better profit margin than traditional retailing activities at the Co-op last year. The group reported this morning that operating profits from its legal services rose by 15% during 2011, far outperforming the business as a whole. Co-operative Legal Services (CLS), which ...
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Report urges reform of human rights court
Ministers from 47 European states must agree plans to reform the human rights court in Strasbourg before pressure for the UK to withdraw from its jurisdiction becomes ‘irresistible’, a member of the government’s Commission on Human Rights has said. The UK’s chairmanship of the Council of ...
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Criminal law
Human rights - Suicide - Liability for complicity in another’s suicide - Claimant being paralysed Nicklinson v Ministry of Justice: QBD (Mr Justice Charles): 12 March 2012 The claimant was ...
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Customer is wrong
I assume that if 120,000 solicitors told chief legal ombudsman Adam Sampson and the Law Society to strike out the use of the words ‘customers’ and, worse still, ‘consumers’ from usage, they will oblige? The use of the words customer and consumer is inaccurate in a professional context and ultimately ...
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Formula won
I applaud David Enright’s attempt to define justice with a formula. He could be on to something. Could there be a formula to calculate profitability (P) in a bank’s mortgage lending? Take a hypothetical, completely made-up bank (call it BHSC). Include total funds lent (M); maybe the size of BHSC’s ...
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No to HSBC
Having received the 13 pages of instructions from Countrywide Conveyancing Services in connection with a HSBC mortgage it is providing to my purchasing clients, it is obvious that this new procedure is doubling the work for conveyancing solicitors not on the HSBC panel while leaving all the liability and risk ...
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Immigration
Appeal - Evidence - Use of linguistic analysis reports RB (Somalia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Rix, Moses and Mr Justice Briggs): 13 March 2012 ...
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Immigration
Asylum seeker - Child - Best interests of child HK (Afghanistan) and others (by their litigation friend) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Pill, Rimer and Elias): 16 March 2012 ...
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Political split on Welsh jurisdiction
Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan (pictured) has said there is ‘no need’ for a distinct Welsh legal jurisdiction as the country begins a debate on separation from England. The Welsh government began a consultation this week on creating a new legal system. First minister Carwyn Jones is ...
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Poetic justice
On the subject of songs, Caroline Goorney, collaborative family lawyer and mediator from Gosforth, Newcastle, has brightened Obiter’s day with a ditty: A COLP and a COFA waited all dayto download their forms from the SRA.They yearned to enter ...