Headlines – Page 1166
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Call to halt referral fee ‘auctions’
A personal injury solicitor has accused insurance companies of ‘auctioning cases to the highest bidder’. John Spencer (pictured), director of Spencers Solicitors, said some insurers had conducted referral fee auctions amongst solicitors for bundles of cases. The price tag of these bundles was likely to be ...
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Eric Pickles, where are these Jubilee jobsworths?
Next week the nation will unite to celebrate the fact that an elderly woman isn’t dead yet. The Queen will reach her Diamond Jubilee, and as punishment she’ll have to suffer thousands of idiot well-wishers, the BBC disappearing up her backside and a concert featuring Ed ...
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The London Legal Walk: a show of solidarity
Times are hard in certain sections of the legal profession. There are many different views on what would be an appropriate response to the cuts in public funding scheduled to come into force in April 2013. Some believe that pro bono is a necessary safety net to protect the most ...
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Keeping the Pirates at Bay (or away from it)
In 2003, a group of friends living in Sweden launched a website which quickly became one of the most notorious sites on the internet - a file-sharing website known as The Pirate Bay. The High Court has now instructed five internet service providers (ISPs) to take measures to block their ...
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Will-writing and property firms bring ABS total to seven
Two niche firms specialising in will-writing and property respectively have become the latest two organisations to be accepted as alternative business structures (ABSs). Parchment Group, based in Buckinghamshire, and three-partner firm Plainlaw, based in Oxfordshire, had their applications confirmed this week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ...
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Don’t rush into fee change, PI lawyers warn government
Personal injury lawyers have urged the government not to be rushed into radical changes to the low-value claims system. The government today closed its call for evidence and opinion on the future of the RTA Portal as it seeks to reduce the number of claims being ...
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Intellectual property
Patents Court - Jurisdiction Suh and another v Ryu and others: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 3 May 2012 The Patents County Court held that regulation 3(2)(b) of the ...
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Intellectual property
Patent - Infringement - Order for destruction Merck Canada Inc and another v Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 3 May 2012 The Patents County Court granted ...
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Criminal evidence
Hearsay - Document - Whether conviction on count 1 unsafe R v Ibrahim: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Aikens, Mr Justice Field and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC): 27 April 2012 ...
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Arbitration
Claim form - Service - Service out of the jurisdiction Bitumex (HK) Company Ltd v IRPC Public Company Ltd: Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court (Judge Mackie QC): 2 May 2012 ...
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Desperate ban
The arguments are over and the lobbying is done - the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act is now fully inscribed in the law of the land. The views of politicians, stakeholders and the media over the merits of each provision are moot; attention should now fall to ...
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Upholding human rights
Bryan Nott’s Comment takes to task the call to UK firms to set up in Colombia and expresses clearly the dangerous situation of trade unionists in Colombia: ‘Three out of five trade unionists murdered worldwide are in Colombia’.
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Hudson: bar strike would ‘damage profession’
Strike action by the bar will damage the legal profession and the justice system, the Law Society’s chief executive Desmond Hudson has warned, after a survey showed that nine out of 10 criminal barristers are prepared to refuse work in protest over fee rates and reforms.
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SRA defends trainee minimum salary cut
Scrapping the trainee minimum salary will increase, rather than hinder, diversity in the profession, a senior regulator has insisted. Samantha Barrass, executive director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, was speaking after SRA board members voted to deregulate the minimum salary at their meeting last week. Following ...
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Regulators apply for ABS licence
Two aspiring regulators of the legal profession this week detailed their plans to be approved to license alternative business structures. The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) said it expects a decision from the Legal Services Board on its application within a year. The Institute of Chartered ...
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High Court backs Collyer Bristow
The High Court has found for City law firm Collyer Bristow and two of its former partners in a litigation fund-backed claim that centred on the failure of 19 complex investment schemes. The defendants had faced a claim for £60m, brought by 555 claimants. The claim, ...