Headlines – Page 1057
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Immigration, rehabilitation and deregulation reforms in Queen’s speech
As widely trailed, immigration and crime form key planks of the government’s legislative programme outlined in the Queen’s speech today.
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Immigration bill prompts concern
Measures in the immigration bill announced in today’s Queen’s speech prompted strong reactions from specialist lawyers, welfare campaigners and business. Nichola Carter, head of immigration at niche London firm Carter Thomas, described the proposals as ‘extremely worrying’. Requiring landlords to ...
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State must provide ‘genuine access’ – Neuberger’s rebuke to government
The president of the Supreme Court has warned that denying access to the courts could create an exploitative society that might ultimately fail - and he called on lawyers to help ensure the justice system works. Delivering the first Harbour Litigation Funding lecture, Lord Neuberger said ...
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PI shake-up continues with two new takeovers
Contraction in the personal injury market has continued with the announcement of two new takeovers. North-west firm Antony Hodari has completed the purchase of litigation specialist Tandem Law through its AVH Legal trading arm. The acquisition was agreed with Tandem Law’s administrators ...
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Support for deaf clients
With Deaf Awareness Week taking place this week, the spotlight is being shone on those consumers who are Deaf and how legal advice can best be provided to them. In this context, research by the Royal Association for Deaf People’s (RAD) Deaf Law Centre (DLC) has revealed statistics that show ...
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Bar regulator bids to take heat out of QASA standoff
The Bar Standards Board has today extended the first registration deadline for the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates in the face of a threatened mass boycott by barristers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is poised to follow suit. In a ...
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Brazil’s ‘malformed’ penal code
The Brazilian legal system is governed by civil law. Consequently, it mainly relies upon codified legislation rather than precedents. Among the various codes in force, there have been many debates over the penal code. This came into force in 1941 and it was partly revised in 1984.
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Britain’s fragile legal legacy
The Queen’s decision to cut back on long-haul flights has avoided the need to address the rights and wrongs of her presence at the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, where the rule of law is cause for concern. As has been widely reported, the removal and impeachment of their chief ...
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Guidance for law firms collecting diversity data
The Law Society has published a guidance note to help firms collect and publish diversity data about their workforces. This year is the first that firms have been required to make their own arrangements. Last year the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) sent out an online questionnaire ...
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Grayling to face crime lawyers
The Law Society has secured two face-to-face meetings between criminal legal aid practitioners and justice secretary Chris Grayling to discuss government proposals for price-competitive tendering (PCT) and other contentious issues - the first such meetings of this kind. As the Gazette reported on Monday, most leading ...
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Quindell tries to calm investors after shares slide
Attempts by fast-growing legal entity Quindell Portfolio to ease investors’ concerns appear to have had little effect after a second day of tumbling share prices. The company released a statement yesterday after its shares on the London AIM stock market fell by 28%. ...
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Future ‘not necessarily bleak’ for costs lawyers
The judge responsible for implementing the Jackson reforms has spoken of his hope that third-party funding will become more prevalent in financing cases. Mr Justice Ramsey told the Association of Costs Lawyers annual conference the future of third-party litigation funding was one of the ‘great questions’ ...
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‘Significant concerns’ over costs budgeting
Solicitors have ‘significant concerns’ that costs budgeting will increase overall costs due to the time taken to comply with it. An 18-month pilot study into new costs rules brought in by the Jackson reforms has found they will get a mixed response from practitioners forced into ...
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Facebook and flexible friends
It’s been a time of contrast for the fortunes of women in the workforce. On the one hand, we had Nicola Mendelsohn. Who she? She’s the business high-flyer who is the antithesis of presenteeism. She’s flexible working personified. She is, to put it alliteratively, the three-day ...
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Law firms and cloud computing
Cloud computing – delivering IT resources remotely via the web – has been a hot topic in legal IT for several years, and it has gained serious traction over the past 18 months. In common with other sectors that avoid early adoption of new technology, legal services providers interpret the ...
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Sentencing
Imprisonment – Length of sentence – Defendants pleading guilty to number of terrorism offence R v Khan and others: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division: 16 April 2013 The Court of ...
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Taxpayer to foot bill for interpreter pay rise
A 22% hike in payments to courtroom interpreters is set to knock a large hole in savings forecast by the government under its ill-starred initiative to contract out the service.
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PCT bidders risk flouting conduct code
Solicitors who bid for the proposed new criminal legal aid contracts risk breaching the Code of Conduct, the Law Society’s head of legal aid policy has warned. Richard Miller told a conference last week that adhering to the model devised by the Ministry of Justice ...
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Scrap ‘flawed’ asylum system, says Society
The UK’s asylum process should be scrapped in favour of a ‘new blueprint’ that will reduce delays and ensure greater fairness and accountability in the treatment of asylum-seekers, the Law Society’s immigration law committee told MPs last week. The revised process would address the ‘deep systemic ...
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PI firms can prosper with right skills, says Graves
Personal injury firms can survive and prosper in the new era of lower fixed fees if they upskill their workforce and filter out more profitable cases, a leading legal consultant has told the Gazette. Lesley Graves (pictured), founder of Citadel Law, said that up to 10% ...