Headlines – Page 1441
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Solicitors must diversify and cross-sell to boost profits
In the next few weeks some friends of ours, who are farmers, will be opening a new marina and farm shop on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
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Linklaters launches fast-track LPC
Magic circle firm Linklaters has launched an accelerated legal practice course designed to cut four and a half months from the typical LPC course length. The accelerated LPC, available to the firm’s trainees from January 2011, will take seven and a half months to complete. Linklaters ...
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Number of family law disputes in January much greater than expected
The number of legal disputes over children almost doubled in January as Christmas and the recession combined to increase tensions between divorced parents, figures have revealed. Contact Law, a client introduction network for law firms, said enquiries regarding child support and child custody jumped 49%, from ...
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Injured person ‘forgotten’, says APIL
The personal injury claims process has lost sight of the injured person, the president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has said. Speaking at the APIL president’s lunch, John McQuater said a good claims system needed to strike ‘the right balance’ for injured people and ...
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Criminal law: use of hearsay evidence; professional conduct
The Supreme Court in R v Horncastle [2009] UKSC14 has upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal that, in appropriate circumstances, the Crown may rely wholly or mainly on hearsay evidence to establish its case. The Court of Appeal had, however, emphasised the need to check the reliability of ...
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Family law
Civil procedure – Committal orders- Disclosure Re SC (children) sub nom SC v HC: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Thorpe, Wall): 28 January 2010 The appellant wife (W) appealed against ...
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Human rights
Media and entertainment – Anonymity – Freedom of expression – Reporting restrictions In the matter of Guardian News and Media Ltd and Ors sub nom Mohammed Jabar Ahmed and Ors v HM Treasury: Mohammed Al-Ghabra v HM ...
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Immigration
Human rights – Convictions – Deportation JO (Uganda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: JT (Ivory Coast) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Richards, Toulson): 22 January 2010 ...
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Bar Council chairman talks about plans to combat potentially ‘devastating’ threats
Stability and modernisation are the key themes of Nick Green QC’s tenure as the recently installed chairman of the Bar Council. Stability in respect of the publicly funded bar, and modernisation in so far as the bar must urgently adapt to a ‘fast-moving and changing legal landscape’.
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Garrow’s draw
This week Obiter can announce the three winners of our competition to win a Garrow’s Law DVD, in which we asked you to complete the sentence, ‘I think history will determine that I have made much more of a difference to the law than William Garrow because…’ Robert Miller, solicitor ...
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Art is a journey – if only from A to B
Continuing the cultural theme of last week, when readers were treated to some excellent works by members of the Law Society’s art group, Obiter brings you the latest offering from professional artists at London firm Collyer Bristow’s very own gallery. And Obiter may be biased, but we think the lawyers ...
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Another chance to win...
Any readers who missed out on last month’s competition to win a copy of the first series of Law & Order: UK, you can now stop sobbing uncontrollably at your desk.
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Mork and Martin
Obiter has one final instalment in our ‘lawyers with celebrities’ thread (unless we get some more good ones, of course. You can’t have too much of a good thing). The latest entry comes from Martin Smith, associate at Berrymans Lace Mawer in Birmingham. ...
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Star flaws
I read with interest Richard Taylor’s article regarding copyright problems over the uniform of the Imperial Stormtroopers featured in the Star Wars films (see [2010] Gazette, 4 February, 14). It would appear the editor knows far more about intellectual property law than Star Wars – the accompanying picture is actually ...
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In a fix on fees
To justify lawyers’ time-based charging, Peter Rogers and Lloyd Junor seek to take comfort from the idea that heart surgeons charge more if they hit complications mid-operation (see [2010] Gazette, 4 December, 13). As I understand it, surgeons quote a fixed fee and stick to it, complications or not.
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Aid at a premium
My colleagues and I were interested to read the story 'Society plans costs-capping challenge’ (see [2009] Gazette, 17 December, 1).
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It’s good to talk
I recently had my first experience of the court’s small claims mediation service, in a difficult building dispute which started life as a small claim but, had it proceeded, would have gone into the fast track.
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A radical change to regulation will benefit both firms and their clients
In a recent Law Society survey, 78% of 1,000 firms said that the regulatory system places too great a burden on them. This did not hugely surprise me – some solicitors would say that any regulatory burden is excessive – but nevertheless it indicates a problem. Evidently, many solicitors who ...
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Hearing children’s cases in private is crucial to justice
by Alistair MacDonald, a barrister at St Philips Chambers, Birmingham. He is a past joint chair of the Association of Lawyers for Children and was a panel member at a debate on the government’s transparency proposals held in December by the Family Justice Council In B ...
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Graduates and junior lawyers are being squeezed as firms try to stay afloat
There’s nothing necessarily equitable, or ethical, about unregulated markets, as the grave economic consequences of free market fundamentalism have demonstrated. So it’s no surprise that junior lawyers are being squeezed as law firms try to stay afloat in the most challenging business environment most solicitors can remember. ...