Headlines – Page 1384
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LSC needs to explain allocation of work
In defence of its decisions affecting family practitioners, the Legal Services Commission states that it will commission the same level of help as last year. However, in the low-volume categories, it is clear that the LSC has deliberately reduced the numbers of matter starts nationally, to the detriment of the ...
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Trying to make sense of the legal aid tender
Before In the Loop there was Yes Minister, the latter contrasting with the former in airing only the mildest of profanities. One sprang to mind when considering the family legal aid tender. ‘Minister, if you must do this damn silly thing,’ the mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby advises the hapless Jim ...
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Comparison website offers free legal expenses insurance
A new website that compares solicitors by price, location and customer ratings has begun offering clients a free legal expenses insurance policy for road traffic accident (RTA) claims, it emerged last week. Legalcompare.com, which launched in August after 18 months of testing by consumer panels, is ...
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Lack of awareness on mental health
In his letter of 8 July, Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission referred to 'procurement area', ‘client access’, ‘proper advice provision’ and ‘client demand’. Regrettably, this shows a lack of awareness of the type of work in which mental health lawyers are involved.
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Ralli pursues group action for harassment against London firm
National firm Ralli is seeking to pursue a group action for harassment against London firm ACS Law in relation to the handling of file-sharing cases. Ralli has called for individuals to contact the firm if they have received what it claims are ‘bullying’ letters from ACS ...
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UK lawyer delegation suffer Colombia rights rebuff
A delegation of UK lawyers which visited Colombia last week to investigate the persecution and murder of human rights lawyers had permission to inspect the country’s overcrowded and violent prisons withdrawn. Delegates from the Law Society, Bar Council and Institute of Legal Executives were part of ...
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Criminal record certificates have blighted lives
Enhanced criminal record certificates (see 'Tainted records') were brought in after the Ian Huntley murder cases to protect ‘children and vulnerable adults’. Commendable though this may be, what does not seem to have been envisaged by our politicians was that the lives of numerous innocent people would be blighted. Here ...
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New law firm model could ease PII woes
A law firm has developed an innovative new structure that it believes could help small firms and sole practitioners obtain professional indemnity insurance (PII). Virtual firm Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair (Scomo) will join up with a small number of other firms under one ‘umbrella LLP’ that ...
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FSA underlines policyholder right to choose solicitor
The Financial Services Authority has ordered legal expenses insurers to prove to the regulator that they comply with European law that gives policyholders certain rights to choose their own solicitor. The FSA’s insurance sector director Ken Hogg warned insurers that, in light of a European Court ...
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Law Commission calls for greater use of civil penalties
The Law Commission has proposed a cut in the number of criminal offences for regulatory breaches. In a consultation published last week, the commission suggested that using civil penalties for technical breaches of farming, food safety, banking and retail laws would save the criminal justice system ...
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Defra lawyers face savage job cuts
A government department is to make 42 lawyers redundant, the Gazette has learned, as solicitors warn of more job losses to come in public sector legal teams. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is to make 40% of its 87 solicitors and 18 ...
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Lloyds Banking Group axes 2,500 firms from conveyancing panel
About 2,500 firms have been axed from Lloyds Banking Group’s conveyancing panel in its recent cull, the Law Society has estimated. Over the last month the group, which includes Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Birmingham Midshires, has reviewed its panel membership to remove firms ...
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Frustrated Lawyers R Us. Plan ‘B’ mutiny?
‘The sun is out... the sky is blue... there’s not a cloud... to spoil the view... but it’s raining... (doodle doodle doom)... raining in my heart.’
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Danish insurer enters PII market
A Danish insurance company has entered the solicitors professional indemnity insurance (PII) market to provide cover to small and medium-sized law firms, as the 1 October renewals deadline approaches. Copenhagen-based Alpha Insurance A/S will issue PII policies for firms of between one and 25 partners, in ...
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LSC reveals winners of Manchester CLAS contracts
The Legal Services Commission and Manchester City Council have commissioned Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau in conjunction with Shelter, local law firms Glaisyers and Platt Halpern, and Cheetham Hill Advice Centre to run Manchester’s new Community Legal Advice Service. The service will operate from six sites and ...
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Treasury attacked over equality impact of budget
HM Treasury has missed the deadline for responding to papers filed by a gender equality pressure group seeking a judicial review of the coalition’s first budget, it emerged last week. The Fawcett Society is claiming that the Treasury failed to fulfil its gender equality duty when ...
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The transatlantic gold rush
A spate of US/UK law firm mergers marks a scramble for position in a changing international legal market.
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Law firms plan to escalate LSC tender challenge nationwide
The Legal Services Commission can expect a ‘nationwide’ challenge to the lawfulness of its recent tenders, according to an alliance of 12 family firms which plan to take the fight to the agency. The firms, based in London, Exeter and Hull, all failed to get new ...
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FCO decision on human rights report 'puts businesses at risk'
The Law Society has warned that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) decision to cease publishing its annual report on human rights abuses worldwide could mean that British businesses will be exposed to an increased ‘risk factor’ overseas. In 1997 the then foreign secretary Robin Cook ...
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Legal executives seek right to conduct reserved probate work
Will-writers and legal executives could be given the right to apply for grants of probate by next March, under powers being sought by the Institute of Legal Executives. However, the Law Society has warned that the move could give ‘false comfort’ to consumers. ...