All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 33
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News
Family courts cuts will create ‘perfect storm’
Lawyers have voiced concern about plans to cut the number of judges and courts dealing with family cases in central London at a time when increasing numbers of litigants in person are expected to put greater strain on the service. The family justice system is working ...
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News
Separate representation vote condemned
The Council of Mortgage Lenders today accused Scottish solicitors of protectionism after they voted for separate representation for buyers and lenders in all conveyancing transactions. CML director general Paul Smee said: ‘It is disappointing that a measure which is so blatantly against consumer interests and ...
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News
Chancellor cheers conveyancers, as Scots vote on ‘sep rep’
Chancellor George Osborne today cheered conveyancers by announcing in his budget dramatic new measures to boost the housing market. A help-to-buy scheme is to be introduced for prospective purchasers struggling to find mortgage deposits. This will include £3.5bn for shared ...
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News
Call to end ‘mock trials’ in public inquiries
The ‘litigation model’ of public inquiries should be reformed to embrace alternative methods of dialogue and decision-making, according to a report published by the chief executive of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). The report’s author, CEDR chief executive Karl Mackie, said that public inquiries ...
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LSC to reconsider ‘hacked’ legal aid contract tender
A Birmingham solicitor who lost out on a family legal aid contract after her online application was hacked has won a legal challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s refusal to reconsider her application. The High Court heard that Rifat Mushtaq, owner of Mushtaq & Co, had ...
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News
Probate work helps Co-op ABS break even in year one
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) made a small profit in its first year as an alternative business structure on a 12.8% increase in revenue, the Co-operative Group’s financial results published today reveal. CLS, established seven years ago, became one of the first ABSs in March last year ...
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News
Lloyds counsels calm on credit
High street firms should not fear a ‘kneejerk’ reaction from banks restricting lending in the wake of high-profile firm failures, according to a big-four bank. The collapse of Manchester firm Cobbetts in January, which followed the demise in 2010 of regional giant Halliwells, has led ...
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News
Call to suspend Sri Lanka from Commonwealth
A report for the Bar Human Rights Committee has called for Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Commonwealth over the impeachment of the country’s chief justice. Barrister and report author Geoffrey Robertson QC said Dr Shirani Bandaranayake (pictured), Sri Lanka’s first woman judge and chief ...
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News
Society: SRA should invite bids for failures’ caseloads
The Law Society has suggested that the Solicitors Regulation Authority should invite firms to bid for work from failed firms to cut the cost of interventions, the Society’s chief executive revealed last night. Desmond Hudson (pictured) was addressing the Conveyancing Association, following the SRA’s revelation earlier ...
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News
Grieve backs greater police role in prosecutions
Police should take over the prosecution of more ‘routine non-contested cases ’, the attorney general suggested last night. Dominic Grieve QC said ...
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News
Drug and Alcohol Court pioneers drink monitors
The judge leading London’s pioneering Family Drug and Alcohol Court has voiced concern that lack of money will stop families in care cases getting adequate support to turn their lives around. Judge Nicholas Crichton (pictured) spoke to the Gazette following the end of a three-month pilot ...
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News
Unbundling may be the key to legal aid survival, president says
Offering pay-as-you-go legal advice could enable solicitors to help clients denied legal aid after 1 April and may help firms generate more work, the Law Society president suggested today. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff told the Society’s legal aid conference: ‘The reality is that for many clients who are ...
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News
Nine out of 10 oppose criminal tendering plan
Nearly 90% of solicitors are opposed to price-competitive tendering (PCT) for criminal defence work, a Law Society survey has revealed, after the government announced accelerated plans for its introduction. The online poll of 200 solicitors showed overwhelming opposition to tendering – 89% strongly disagreed or disagreed ...
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News
Grayling sets out payment-by-results vision
Payment by results will be the norm for government departments in the future, the justice secretary said today as he explained his ‘vision’ to reduce the ‘endless spiral of reoffending’. Speaking at a conference on rehabilitation, organised by the thinktank Policy Exchange, Chris Grayling said his ...
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News
Grayling puts price tendering in the fast lane
Price-competitive tendering for criminal defence services will be introduced this autumn under accelerated plans revealed by the justice secretary this morning. In a written ministerial statement, Chris Grayling (pictured) announced an eight-week consultation on the plans will begin in April – but said that the tender ...
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News
Criminal defence tendering: a tipping point
In a surprise move, Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, has announced an accelerated timetable for the Ministry of Justice’s plans to introduce price-competitive tendering for criminal defence services. Having decimated civil legal aid and savaged the practice of personal injury lawyers, the ministry has now seemingly ...
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News
Santander sets conveyancing panel deadline
Conveyancing firms that have not applied for the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) by 28 March will be removed from Santander’s panel, the bank has confirmed. In September last year, the bank announced that existing, as well as new, firms on its residential conveyancing panel ...
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Society and bar pledge to work together on contract terms
The Law Society and the Bar Council have issued a joint statement on the controversial standard contractual terms of business between barristers and solicitors, marking a detente between the two branches of the profession. The new contractual terms took effect from 31 January, replacing the commonly ...
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News
‘Litigant in person’ back as judges U-turn on terminology
Unrepresented litigants should be referred to as ‘litigants in person’ (LiPs) rather than ‘self-represented litigants’ in all criminal, family and civil courts, the master of the rolls has directed in practice guidance. Lord Dyson’s decision changes a recommendation by the Civil Justice Council last November suggesting ...
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News
Grayling reprieves RCJ advice centre
The Ministry of Justice today announced that it will fund the family law service provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau at the Royal Courts of Justice - after its grant was removed by the Legal Services Commission as part of the ministry’s cuts. The MoJ ...