Headlines – Page 1160
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Do the admin
I have been reading with interest about the trainee situation in law firms, including the minimum wage issues. I was a mature student who took an LLB honours degree with the Open University, while holding down a full-time legal secretarial position in a high street firm and bringing up three ...
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Cheap labour
I am astonished by Charles Plant's article. I became a trainee in September 1982 and was one of the first to benefit from the minimum salary, which was then about £3,000. This was at a time when it was difficult to find traineeships and I was ...
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Law centre stage
We were delighted by the recognition of pro bono work with law centres at the LawWorks pro bono awards, as reported by the Gazette. The prizes provided a good snapshot of the variety of ways of working pro bono: as individuals (Sheena Teli, North Kensington Law Centre), in-house groups (Virgin ...
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Growing schism
Max Hill QC’s recent letter to the Gazette in reply to comments made by solicitors’ representatives highlights the schism between the two branches of a single profession.
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Soundbite propaganda
It would be helpful if those who believe they are entitled to instruct others on policy paid attention to their own words. Dr Peter Swinyard - no doubt an esteemed professional - being one such individual (‘Top GP backs checks on whiplash claims’).
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Court flaws
The new procedure for issuing money claims out of Salford Business Centre makes no provision for proceedings which are up against the limitation date.
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Private investors back comparison site
A Hertfordshire solicitor says he has secured £500,000 of private investment for a website that enables consumers to compare law firms’ prices, in the latest move to stake out territory in the fast-developing sector. The announcement, by CompareLegalCosts.com, was made in the week that the Law ...
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Law Society vice-president's firm applies to be ABS
A virtual law firm set up by the incoming president of the Law Society has applied to become an alternative business structure, so that its lawyers can share profits without the regulatory burden of becoming a partner or director.
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Court lists and performance data to go online
Court lists and data on individual courts’ performance are to be made available online under plans expected to be published by the government today. A ‘right to data’ white paper from the Cabinet Office will also set out a timetable for publishing judges’ sentencing remarks online, ahead of their planned ...
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Progress report on Lord Justice Jackson's civil justice reforms
In public, Sir Rupert Jackson (pictured) is circumspect about the government’s implementation of civil justice reforms based on his report. In private, he could be forgiven for feeling disappointment over the execution of changes to which he has lent his name. In addition to time ...
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Criminal justice system is failing asylum seekers and refugees
by Tabitha Bushill, legal director at the Howard League for Penal Reform The Gazette recently highlighted miscarriages of justice claims over legal advice failings. The Howard League for Penal Reform shares concerns raised, but feels greater responsibility falls to the Crown Prosecution Service and other responsible ...
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CML moves to pool data on mortgage lender panels
Work is under way on the development of a system for sharing data about members of mortgage lenders’ conveyancing panels, to ease the administrative burden on solicitors, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed last week. Paul Smee, the CML’s director general, told a Conveyancing ...
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Incoherent legacy of Jackson's civil justice reforms
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act is now law. With so little conceded to critics, those who opposed it with such energy could be forgiven for feeling resigned to their worst fears being realised. But as we report in this week’s feature, ...
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Hart waves Welsh flag to boost legal jobs
The Welsh government will today launch a long-term strategy to attract thousands of new legal jobs to the country. Business minister Edwina Hart is targeting international, London-based law firms, which she will urge to consider Wales as the ‘business location of choice’ for expansion and ...
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New technology forces legal profession into uncharted territory
Cloud computing is a form of outsourcing. There is legal process outsourcing where, classically, a large law firm sends some legal work to India where it will be undertaken more cheaply. And there is non-legal outsourcing – such as cloud computing – where a back-office function, such as file storage, ...
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Chancery Lane unveils composite PII form
The Law Society has asked brokers and insurers to adopt a composite proposal form for professional indemnity insurance (PII) in an effort to simplify the process of obtaining multiple quotes. The Society said it had secured support for its composite form from ‘some of the major ...
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Family bar chief calls for divorce law reform
Divorce laws should be reformed to provide a default regime for the division of assets when relationships break down, the chief of the family bar has suggested. Nicholas Cusworth QC (pictured), chair of the Family Law Bar Association, told the Gazette that greater certainty over ...
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Mis-selling claim papers sent to FSA
Court papers from an ongoing interest rate swap mis-selling claim obtained by the Gazette have been submitted to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) by the MP leading parliamentary scrutiny of the products’ sale to UK businesses.
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ECtHR whip-round for extra lawyers to clear backlog
The European Court of Human Rights has appealed for voluntary contributions from member states to pay for extra lawyers to clear its backlog of cases – but no state has yet agreed to chip in. The Council of Europe and the court’s president announced the ...
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Classified results
It’s late June and they’re bustin’ out all over. Law firms’ annual results, of course. This is the time of year when City firms release the previous year’s figures for turnover (not very interesting), profit (quite interesting) and profit per equity partner (admit it: the bit you really want to ...