Headlines – Page 1245
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Referral fee ban will hit PI claimants - says MoJ assessment
Personal injury claimants could suffer from a ban on referral fees while insurers and lawyers would incur no extra costs, according to the government department proposing the ban. An impact assessment of the proposed ban, published today by the Ministry of Justice, admits that ‘overall claimants ...
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Trusted advisor
Judging from the reaction to my blog on the new outcomes-focused regulation the profession is not overwhelmingly optimistic about this. However, one positive thing to hang on to in troubling times is the solicitor’s traditional role as a trusted advisor and how that concept is enshrined in the new rules. ...
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Tabak: without prejudice
Judging by the mood on Twitter - not to mention comments on newspaper websites - the public is seething. People are obviously appalled by Vincent Tabak’s crime, but they are equally livid at the law - and, specifically, the judge who deemed inadmissible so much of the evidence about his ...
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Insolvency
Company - Administrator - Restrictions on power to appoint Minmar Ltd and another v Khalatschi and another: Chancery Division (Sir Andrew Morritt): 8 April 2011 The Chancery Division of the ...
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Record fall in applications for university law degrees
The biggest fall in university applications in more than 30 years has seen the number of candidates applying to study law drop by a record 5.2%, according to figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Last year 13,858 people applied to study law ...
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Employment
Statutory sick pay - Employer's liability Seaton v Revenue and Customs Commissioners: Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (Sir Stephen Oliver QC and Edward Sadler): 22 July 2011 The Upper ...
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Paperless working concerns
As many defence practitioners will be aware, the Crown Prosecution Service is rapidly moving forward with its plans to achieve a paperless office through its Transforming Through Technology (T3) project. The impetus to achieve this ‘holy grail’ of the paperless office - first spoken of in the commercial world in ...
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Lawyers could avoid complaints by addressing simple quality issues
A year since we launched - and I suppose we have to accept that it is now officially the end of the beginning. Frankly, it is a bit of a shock to realise that we have been up and running for that length of time. It comes as an even ...
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A case where a solicitor is both funded and not funded leaves little incentive to risk representation
Now that there is no payment under legal aid for magistrates’ court work which is committed to the Crown court, I find myself in a practical equivalent of the paradox described by Schrödinger and his dead or alive moggy.
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Local government
Council tax - Rating - Rating list Wilson v Jo Coll (listing officer): Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Singh (judgment delivered extempore)): 13 October 2011 The Administrative ...
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Personal injury
Maintenance of action - Assignment of right of action - Claimant appealing Simpson v Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Maurice Kay (vice-president), Moore-Bick, Dame Janet Smith): 12 October 2011 ...
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Balanced budget?
It is reported that the government plans to increase its foreign aid budget by a staggering 35% to countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Burma, where international aid officials concede that fraud and corruption have been endemic for years. It is plainly the case that ...
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Human rights
Right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions - Property - Devolution issues - Scotland AXA General Insurance Ltd and others v Lord Advocate and others (Scotland): SC (Justices of the Supreme Court - Lords Hope (deputy president), Brown, Mance, Kerr, ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain - Refusal of leave - Human rights - Right to respect for private and family life R (on the application of Aguilar Quila) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; R (on the application of ...
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Workers’ rights go in and out of fashion
Many comparisons can be made between employment law and the fashion industry - even leaving aside the glamour of its practitioners. Both can be cruel mistresses, blown in the winds of opinion; each is subject to changes that can appear at best fickle (and are often imported from the continent). ...
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Criminal-case mediation ‘by 2020’
Compulsory mediation of civil disputes and mediation of criminal cases could be introduced in the UK by 2020, a High Court judge has suggested. Mr Justice Ramsey (pictured) predicted that in 10 years’ time a Mediation Act would make the process compulsory before parties could ...
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MPs call for comprehensive referral fee ban
An influential Commons committee has today called on the Ministry of Justice to impose a comprehensive ban on referral fees and tougher penalties for breaching data protection laws. A report published by the House of Commons justice committee concludes that referral fees often reward illegal behaviour, ...
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Claimant solicitors to get fraud data access
Claimant solicitors are set to be given unprecedented access to fraud records to root out potentially bogus cases. Agreement that lawyers acting for claimants should have access to the same information as motor insurers and their representatives follows a ground-breaking meeting between the insurance industry and ...
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Costs rule ‘will fuel litigation’
Litigators may face a tough new rule on the ‘proportionality’ of their costs that could fuel satellite litigation and uncertainty, experts warned last week. Nicholas Bacon QC, a member of both the Civil Procedure Rules committee and Civil Justice Council group dealing with implementation of the ...