Headlines – Page 1052
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Where was the LASPO dissent?
I thought I was dreaming when I switched on my radio this morning. Three pinches and a cold shower later and I knew it was true: a legal aid issue was the headline new story on Five Live (the baby prefers Nicky Campbell to John Humphries). ...
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Hundreds attend legal aid protest rally
Over 500 lawyers attended a mass rally at parliament today to protest over criminal legal aid reforms which ‘strike a dagger through the British justice system’. Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four and Breeda Power, daughter of one of the Birmingham Six, were also ...
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Westminster legal aid protest: images
Over 500 lawyers attended a mass rally at parliament today to protest over the planned criminal legal aid reforms. Here is a selection of images of those who came to raise their voices against the changes. ...
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Privatising the courts
Last year the government fattened up the Royal Mail for privatisation by imposing a 30% hike in the cost of a first-class stamp - its biggest price rise for 37 years. Job done. Annual profits have soared, it was disclosed this week. The Queen’s head is duly on the block, ...
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Unanimous: profession votes for ‘training days’ action in protest over cuts
In an unprecedented show of unity by the legal profession hundreds of barristers and solicitors came together yesterday to oppose the government’s proposed criminal legal aid cuts which they said would ‘destroy the fabric of the criminal justice system’. Over 1,000 attended a London meeting dubbed ...
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Paper weight
What goes around, comes around, and now it’s time to eschew online marketing and go back to using dead trees. Or at any rate that’s what those techie chaps at mylawyer.co.uk have just done. They inserted a printed flyer inside the Sunday Times and awaited a response. ...
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International firms call off merger
International firms Speechly Bircham and Withers today announced that they had dropped merger plans following almost two months of talks. The firms said in March they had entered ‘preliminary discussions’ over creating a joint practice with more than 600 lawyers. But in ...
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Gest appearance
While the nation focused on his appearance (one newspaper even describing him as a Welsh David Gest), it seems the legal world’s Apprentice hopeful may just have a chance of winning the contest. Young Alex Mills (pictured), founder of the Dynamo Legal brand, impressed Lord Sugar with his design for ...
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Extradition: removing the automatic right to appeal will lead to injustice
by Rebecca Niblock, solicitor at Kingsley Napley LLP and co-author of Extradition law: A Practitioner’s Guide Contrary to popular belief, things can move quickly in extradition. Two contrasting proposals for reform, one passing unnoticed last week, the other lying dormant, could lead to significant changes for ...
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LETR ‘delayed by regulators’
The much-delayed final report of the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR) research team was completed on time and could have been published as planned in December 2012, but was stalled when the regulators insisted on a version three times the size of the original, the Gazette can exclusively reveal.
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Woolwich, crime and mental health
Murder of a soldier in south-east London – a horrid event with some further nastiness in its wider repercussions. Woolwich isn’t too far from my home, and as when Damilola Taylor was murdered (close enough to our old flat to have the home secretary interviewed ...
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UK turns back on EU justice project
The UK will decline to take part in a European Commission (EC) initiative to launch a ‘European justice scoreboard’ that aims to improve justice systems across the continent, justice secretary Chris Grayling told the House of Commons earlier this week.
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Employment
Admission – Liability – Withdrawal Berg v Blackburn Rovers Football Club & Athletic plc: Chancery Division, Manchester District Registry: 29 April 2013 The Chancery Division dismissed an application by ...
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Russia’s legal sector
The market economy in the Russian Federation has developed exponentially since the Soviet Union (USSR), its legal predecessor, dissolved in 1991. Oil and gas contribute up to 25% of GDP and a massive 80% of exports according to UKTI, but Russia is diversifying its economy. With low unemployment, a population ...
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Legal reforms: call for consistency
I listened with particular interest to justice secretary Chris Grayling’s interview on the Today programme about the new reforms of judicial review, which are aimed at making sure only genuine cases receive a hearing. The interviewer John Humphrys quite rightly compared the new changes to a ‘no win, no fee’ ...
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Malaysian abuses
As a native-born Malaysian living in the UK, I was ashamed and distressed to learn about the reported treatment of defendants and assaults on lawyers trying to assist them after the April 2012 protest incident. In the 21st century this human rights abuse by a UN member state must not ...
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Dog-eat-dog profession
Am I alone in thinking, after qualifying 40 years ago, that what was then a profession which justified and duly received public respect has degenerated into a dog-eat-dog environment? We already know that larger firms and conveyancing factories sell their souls to estate agents, developers and ...
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Divorce advice
Many years ago at a local meeting of either Relate or the former Solicitors Family Law Association (now Resolution), I proposed to an eminent judge that government health warnings appeared on divorce petitions. The learned judge basically concurred. Many problems arise or are exacerbated by the ...
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Civil strife
With the proposed strike action in respect of criminal legal aid reforms seemingly an agreed and positive form of protest, it saddens me that similar steps were not taken in advance of the cuts made to civil legal aid.