Headlines – Page 1042
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Wax works to tame depression
To Herbert Smith Freehills on London’s Exchange Square, where comedian Ruby Wax (pictured) added some showbiz glamour to a relaunch of the firm’s mental health programme. Wax, who publishes a book on ‘mindfulness’ this summer (Sane New World: How to Tame the Mind), mixed candour with humour as she spoke ...
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Best go to Tesco? Er, no
Legal aid lawyers have a belligerent ally in the Guardian’s star columnist Zoe Williams, who directed a withering broadside at the government’s PCT plans last Saturday. Still, quite a few solicitors will have choked on their morning croissant at her revelation that Tesco plans to bid for a contract. Maybe ...
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Commercial courts (that’s all of them)
The Gazette lays claim to this week’s Mystic Meg award for idle speculation that turned out to be not as idle as a reader might have supposed. An editor’s blog last month fingered HM Courts & Tribunals Service as ripe for privatisation, what with its (largely) ramshackle estate, odd plum ...
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When science doesn’t have the answer
The sad story of the couple found dead in the swimming pool reminded me of one case which forensic science failed to solve. This concerned New Zealand-born Rhodes scholar and scientist Gilbert Stanley Bogle, who was found dead along with his companion, Margaret Chandler, at ...
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Panel firms named as claims against NHS soar
The Department of Health has announced its roster of defendant panel firms that will share a £400m contract for the NHS in England over the next four years. After a tender process lasting several months, successful bidders were informed this morning. ...
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Streaming the Supreme Court
Television has for a number of years been a reason why people ultimately decide to become lawyers. From fictional characters, programmes such as Rumpole, Judge Deed, LA Law and Silks, we are offered a creative window into the world of the legal profession. But what about real lawyers?
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National protest marks end of legal aid consultation
Lawyers across England and Wales will unite for a 'minute of unity' at 09.59 tomorrow to mark the deadline for responses to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation, which they warn will have a devastating effect on the criminal justice system. The Law Society has backed ...
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Bar regulator condemns legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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Bar bodies condemn legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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Inspectors call for streamlined criminal justice process
Inspectors of police service and prosecutors have called for decisive action to streamline the criminal justice process and end ‘the spectre of unnecessary bureaucracy’. In a joint report published today HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) identify factors that create ...
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In-deed bows out of ABS venture
The ‘cottage industry’ nature of the conveyancing market makes the failure of conveyancing service In-deed Online ‘unsurprising’, the Gazette has been told. AIM-listed In-deed Online announced last week that it is to sell for £1 a law firm alternative business structure (ABS) that it acquired, along ...
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Conspicuous consultation
I don’t expect outpourings of sympathy, but spare a thought today for the Ministry of Justice officials charged with reading responses to the department’s consultation ‘Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system’. (Yes, that’s the title of Chris Grayling’s proposals to chop £220m by introducing price-competitive tendering ...
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Removal of client choice is a red line - Society
The government’s ‘unworkable and damaging’ planned legal aid changes could push the justice system ‘beyond breaking point to a devastating collapse’, the Law Society has warned in its response to the Ministry of Justice consultation which ends today. Drawing on two sets of independent analyses - ...
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Co-op Legal Services unveils TV and radio campaign
Co-operative Legal Services kicks off a multi-million-pound advertising campaign today with its first TV and radio advertisements.
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Starmer offers victims ‘right to review’
Victims of crime, including bereaved family members, will have the right to ask prosecutors to look again at a case following a decision not to charge or to discontinue proceedings. The government will today set out plans to allow appeals against decisions taken by the Crown ...
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Bar Council faces probe over cab rank ‘interference’
The Legal Services Board is to formally investigate whether the Bar Council breached rules to interfere in a controversial decision affecting the cab rank rule. The investigation follows information provided earlier this year about the council’s role in representing its members. Chris ...
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How to save criminal legal aid
‘First you've got to get mad!’ The words of Peter Finch's character in '70s film The Network. Judging by the stunning attendance at yesterday's Save Legal Aid demo outside the Ministry of Justice – to coincide with the end of the MoJ consultation on price-competitive ...
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Hundreds protest as MoJ swamped by legal aid responses
The Ministry of Justice has received 13,000 responses to its Transforming Legal Aid consultation, it confirmed yesterday, as hundreds of lawyers demonstrated against the proposed cuts outside the ministry’s headquarters in London. The protest, organised by trainees at Tottenham firm Wilson Solicitors, marked the end of ...