All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 62
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News
Working party established to help implement Jackson
The Civil Justice Council has today announced the membership of an expert working party that will consider implementation of the Jackson (pictured) reforms of civil litigation costs. The working party will help develop practical proposals to assist with the implementation of secondary legislation on: qualified one-way ...
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News
Yorkshire entrepreneur plans new chain of high-street law shops
A Yorkshire law firm has teamed up with the founder of Freeserve to launch a national chain of high-street law stores called Legal365. Last Cawthra Feather and Ajaz Ahmed (pictured) launched the venture in July as a website - Legal365.com - to enable consumers and small ...
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News
SRA set to license ABSs in early 2012
The Solicitors Regulation Authority does not expect to start licensing alternative business structures until early 2012, it has said in a new guide to help prospective ABS owners. The guide includes information about which firms need to be authorised as ABSs, essential requirements and details about ...
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News
Lancashire firm targets deaf clients as staff learn sign language
A Lancashire law firm is set to become the first practice in the country dedicated to providing legal services to the deaf and hard of hearing. Joseph Frasier in Blackburn will next week launch a campaign – Representing Your Right to Be Heard – to help ...
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News
OPG calls for more use of non-lawyers to avoid ‘costly legal solutions’
The Office of the Public Guardian is seeking to encourage the use of non-lawyers to act as deputies for those with impaired capacity, so they can avoid ‘costly legal solutions’. In a call for evidence published last week, the OPG is seeking the views of care ...
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News
Guildford lawyer launches conveyancing tool
A Guildford solicitor has helped develop a new online tool to streamline conveyancing, enabling the mortgage lenders’ compliance process to be completed in ‘five minutes’. Julian Sampson, a partner at Wright & Wright, created the ‘Jet’ programme with Alan Dring, the former director of online conveyancing ...
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News
London firm offers 'divorce insurance'
London law firm Prolegal is to offer ‘divorce insurance’ to clients, in conjunction with a legal expenses insurer. The policy, which will be offered to clients when they make a pre-nuptial agreement, will cover the costs of challenging the pre-nup or adopting it into a ...
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News
One in three law centres set to shut down
At least a third of law centres will close if government plans to cut legal aid funding go ahead this autumn, solicitors have predicted. The warning came after the UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm, Law for All, went into administration, weeks after the Immigration ...
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News
Law firm mergers trend ‘to accelerate’
A high proportion of small and medium-sized firms have completed mergers in the first half of 2011, new research by the Law Consultancy Network suggests. The third set of six-monthly statistics compiled by consultant Andrew Otterburn showed that one in three of the 31 firms surveyed ...
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News
Ministers are deaf to reason on legal aid
Time and again government ministers say they are listening when it comes to formulating policy in an environment of austerity. At a press conference on the day that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill was published, the prime minister David Cameron said ...
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News
Legal aid lawyers band together to lobby government
Lawyers’ groups have come together in an informal coalition to lobby the government over its legal aid and civil costs reforms, which they claim will ‘threaten the entire legal advice network’. Groups including the Law Society, Bar Council, Legal Action Group, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, ...
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News
Solicitors fined £20,000 for sending intimidating letters
Two London solicitors have been fined and suspended for three months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for sending intimidating letters accusing people of illegal filesharing. David Gore, a current partner at Davenport Lyons, and Brian Miller, a former partner at the same firm, were found guilty ...
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News
MoJ clamps down on ‘rogue’ CMCs
The Ministry of Justice shut down nearly 350 rogue claims management companies over the last year, according to statistics released last week. In 2010/11, 349 unauthorised or unscrupulous firms were closed as the ministry clamped down on the exploitation of vulnerable consumers, compared to just 35 ...
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News
Five new judges appointed to High Court bench
The Ministry of Justice has announced the appointment of five new high court judges, including the first Sikh to be appointed to the High Court bench. Matrix Chambers’ Rabinder Singh QC (pictured) will become the first Sikh judge to sit in the High Court. ...
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News
Law for All blames bureaucracy burden for closure
The UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm has blamed legal aid cuts and the ‘burden’ of the Legal Services Commission’s bureaucracy for its demise. Law For All, which advised 15,000 clients a year in three London boroughs, East Anglia and the Midlands, went into administration ...
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News
ICO looks into private detective report obtained by Djanogly
The Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed that it is looking into a complaint concerning information obtained by private detectives instructed by justice minister Jonathan Djanogly. However, a spokeswoman for the ICO said press reports that the minister had been reported to the commission, or that he ...
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News
Santander charges ‘compliance fee’
Santander is to introduce an annual compliance fee for its panel members, in a move that the Law Society has called ‘deeply disappointing’. The lender will also open its panel to new firms in August. In a letter to panel members, the bank outlines its plans to move to a ...
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News
Looming legal aid cuts to spark closures
Government plans to cut legal aid rates by at least 10% across the board from October will cause a ‘leap into unprofitability’ for firms, solicitors warned this week. The warning comes as mayor of London Boris Johnson voiced concerns that ‘the majority’ of women who have ...
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News
Legal aid firm Law For All in administration
London and regional not-for-profit advice service Law For All went in administration today, the Gazette can confirm. The organisation provides legal services in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond, as well as in East Anglia and the Midlands. Law ...
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News
MoJ concession on immigration domestic violence cases
Lawyers have welcomed the justice minister’s concession to put some immigration domestic violence cases back within the scope of legal aid. Jonathan Djanogly told the public bill committee that the government would table an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to ...