Headlines – Page 1095
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CILEx announces advanced legal apprenticeship
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) is to introduce a new advanced apprenticeship in legal services which it says will provide a springboard to qualification as a lawyer. The Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Legal is being developed in partnership with Skills for Justice and ...
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Supreme Court stars on YouTube
The Supreme Court’s decision to post videos of judgment summaries on YouTube from tomorrow is great news. It will open up the court to a new audience and build a useful resource for students. As an imperfect practitioner in the art of reducing complex legal arguments to a paragraph or ...
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Care home fees
Not care home fees, but tensions between Henry II and his archbishop led a character in TS Eliot’s Murder In The Cathedral to ask: ‘What peace can be found/To grow between the hammer and the anvil?’ But while a dispute over Newcastle City Council’s approach to care home fees has ...
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Taxi for the cab rank rule
The barristers’ cab rank rule is ‘redundant’ and should be abolished, according to a report published today by the Legal Services Board. Authors Professor John Flood and Professor Morten Hviid suggest that the rule is ‘regularly breached’, and serves ‘no clear purpose’. They claim its ...
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SRA spurns pleas to approve post-Jackson business models
Regulators will reject requests to pre-approve business models that may flout the impending ban on referral fees. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed it will not draw up detailed rules ahead of the ban coming into force in April, despite requests from members of the profession. ...
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COLP/COFA test failed by over 1,000
Convicted criminals and undeclared bankrupts were among the people nominated by law firms to be their compliance officers, it has emerged. The Solicitors Regulation Authority today revealed that more than 1,200 nominees failed an automatic verification exercise to check their suitability to be firms’ self-policing staff. ...
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Legal professional privilege only for lawyers, Supreme Court rules
The Supreme Court ruled today that legal professional privilege (LPP) applies only to qualified lawyers – solicitors and barristers. The eagerly awaited decision, by a majority of 5:2, maintains the existing certainty about the scope of LPP. It confirms that ‘there is no doubt that ...
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Grayling takes aim at the bar
After shooting civil legal aid to smithereens the government now has the criminal bar in its sights. Twice in the past week lord chancellor and justice secretary Chris Grayling has indicated that there is not enough money for criminal legal aid - and cuts have to be made.
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Reform chief predicts 'sweaty palms' over costs budgets
Judges and lawyers will adapt to new costs management rules but the process may take some time, according to the senior judge charged with implementing the Jackson reforms. Lord Justice Ramsey, who has taken over responsibility for the task from Lord Justice Jackson, admitted there will ...
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Secret courts ‘unjust’ warns Law Society
Extending secret courts to ordinary civil justice cases would see the UK ‘stoop to the level of repressive regimes’, the Law Society warns today. In a letter to members of the Public Bill Committee for the Justice and Security Bill, Chancery Lane ...
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Eversheds sheds up to 166 in strategic restructuring
Eversheds plans to axe up to 166 staff across its international network - nearly half of them lawyers - as part of a management and office restructuring. Among those leaving will be Nick Seddon, who joined Eversheds to head the Asia region in 2008 when ...
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Let it snow
How well did your firm or department cope with the snow? (Or how well are you coping? I realise it’s still very much there for some of you.) That’s not just a polite enquiry – though of course I do care – but I actually think ...
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Society and Bar clash over new standard contract terms
Solicitors have been warned to protect themselves against new terms governing their relationship with barristers which come into effect next week. In a practice note, the Law Society said the Bar Council’s new standard contractual terms of business, which for the first time enable barristers to sue for their fees, ...
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Pull up your socks, Johnny Foreigner
One of the main themes of David Cameron’s recent speech seemed to be deep regret that the EU was just not good enough for the UK. If only it were, he would be delighted to recommend staying. And so he gave poor Johnny Foreigner an ultimatum to pull up his ...
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Bermuda calling
The regulatory telecommunications framework in Bermuda is currently in the process of root-and-branch reform heralded by the establishment of a regulatory authority pursuant to the Regulatory Authority Act 2011 and continued by the bringing into force of the relevant sections of the Electronic Communications Act 2011. Coupled with this reform, ...
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COLP cover-up is unforgivable – and that’s the truth
Cards on the table - we’ve all told the odd porkie on an application form. You might add an inch or two to your height on a dating website or fake an interest in the theatre for a job application. I am not immune, dear readers, ...
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Legal challenge begins on RTA fixed fees
Claimant groups have formally begun a legal challenge to the government’s plans to cut personal injury fixed costs. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS) have jointly applied for a judicial review of the justice secretary’s decision to cut fees ...
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Personal injury calculation
The standard rate of interest on general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenities in personal injury cases was fixed at 2% a year by the House of Lords in Birkett v Hayes [1982] 1 WLR 816; [1982] 2 All ER 70. This was confirmed as appropriate by ...
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Development on town and village greens
The last commercial property column looked at the manner in which town and village green applications create hurdles for development. One aspect of the Commons Act 2006 makes life particularly difficult for developers.