Headlines – Page 1071
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Legal executives apply for independent practice rights
Chartered legal executives will be able to provide services in probate, conveyancing, litigation and immigration if a joint application by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) and its regulator ILEX Professional Standards is successful. The two bodies today applied to the Legal Services Board ...
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Interpreter company wins costs order appeal
The company contracted by the Ministry of Justice to provide court interpreters has won an appeal against a decision to award a third-party costs order after a sentencing hearing was adjourned due an interpreter’s non-appearance. In the Court of Appeal yesterday, the president of the Queen’ ...
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Firms are getting cold feet over DBAs
A couple of weeks ago I went along to an excellent debate on damages-based agreements chaired by Michael Napier QC, and hosted by Harbour Litigation Funding and Expedite Resolution. One of the main points that came across was the extent to which the shoddy drafting of ...
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Copyright
Claimant television broadcasting companies in main proceedings commencing proceedings against defendant television production company ITV Broadcasting Ltd and other companies v TVCatchup Ltd: Court of Justice of the European Union (Fourth Chamber): 7 March 2013 The Court of Justice of the European ...
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International private client firms in merger talks
International firms Speechly Bircham and Withers, whose joint headcount includes more than 600 lawyers, are discussing a merger. A joint statement said that the firms are in ‘preliminary discussions’ and both see ‘exciting opportunities for growth in such a merger’. ...
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Grayling looks to boost revenue from litigation
Justice secretary Chris Grayling will consult on plans to raise more money from those who litigate in courts in England and Wales. Grayling today announced he had asked his department to look at reform of the resourcing and administration of HM Courts & Tribunals Service. ...
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Zimbabwe’s Mtetwa released unharmed
Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been freed on bail after more than a week in prison and a decade spent campaigning for the rule of law. She was accused of shouting at police officers and demanding to see a search warrant when police ...
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Justice is never reached, only sought
In a week when a new Pope was elected and scientists at Cern in Switzerland grew more certain that the so-called ‘God particle’ or Higgs boson exists, I fell to thinking about the values of our own profession, and where it stands in the spectrum between the two framework terms ...
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Court of Appeal dismisses first ‘loss of control’ challenges
The Court of Appeal today provided its first interpretation of the new partial defence to murder, ‘loss of control’ in cases where fear of violence was claimed. Loss of control replaces the previous defence of provocation which could reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter. Following Law Commission ...
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Tax attacks undermine rule of law
Back in 2011 George Osborne heralded government efforts to make the UK more tax-competitive, saying: ‘Let it be clearly heard around the world – from Shanghai to Seattle... Britain is open for business.’ Two years on, it is not entirely clear who is listening or whether there are any reasons ...
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Blow to criminal bar as QCs kept in accreditation scheme
QCs will have their own discrete level of accreditation in the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) announced today. The move will be welcomed by the Law Society, which was adamant that QCs be included in the scheme, but disappoint ...
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NHS will benefit from legal duty of candour, says lawyer
A legal duty of candour will save the NHS money in the long term through more transparent clinical negligence claims, a leading specialist lawyer has predicted. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday confirmed that the NHS will have a legal duty to be honest about mistakes, following ...
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Bar chiefs line up to defend cab rank rule
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have published separate reports staunchly defending the cab rank rule. They both respond to a January report by the Legal Services Board in which professors John Flood and Morten Hviid suggested the rule is ‘redundant’ and should be abolished. ...
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The intervention dilemma
There are many challenges facing the legal profession and access to working capital is becoming even more of a major issue. This will be increasingly so as up to £300m is removed from the legal aid budget from March 2013 and as the effects ...
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Planning for tax-year end
The government has announced that it will be reducing the top rate of tax from 50% to 45% for those on incomes over £150,000. This change, along with forthcoming changes to pensions contribution reliefs, means that you should review the reliefs on offer to make sure you’re minimising your tax ...
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Secret hearings in civil courts to be introduced in weeks
Secretive closed material procedure (CMP) hearings are to be extended into the country’s main civil courts following the House of Lords’ narrow rejection of an amendment to the controversial Justice and Security Bill. Peers yesterday voted by 174 to 158 to reject a Labour amendment to ...
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Jackson – an overview
The Jackson reforms, due to take effect 1 April, have met with some controversy and even a degree of bad press. The details are complex; the ultimate effects unclear. The precise wording of some of the measures only became visible when laid before parliament at the end of January, and ...
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Clegg urges lawyers to help employee ownership drive
The deputy prime minister today called on the legal profession to gain an understanding of employee ownership of businesses to help clients set up John-Lewis style enterprises. Delivering the first Robert Oakeshott Memorial Lecture at the Law Society this morning, Clegg backed a target ...
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SFO doubling Libor investigation team
‘Significant developments’ in the Libor investigation are expected over the next few months, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) indicated last night. Addressing the inaugural meeting of the Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA), David Green (pictured) said the SFO is doubling the team working on ...
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Society intervenes in Nepal 'anti-Maoist' human rights case
The Law Society has intervened in the case of a Nepalese human rights lawyer facing prosecution as an ‘anti-Maoist dollar mongerer’. The Society has called on Nepal’s prime minister Khil Raj Regmi to protect lawyer Mandira Sharma from threats of death and violence. ...