Headlines – Page 1513
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Jackson proposes Commercial Court cost reforms
Costs rules for high-value complex commercial cases could be amended after the judge in charge of a wide-ranging review of civil litigation costs opened the door for reforms. Despite opposition from the Commercial Court Users Committee (CCUC), which is carrying out its own review of ...
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Madoff fraud prompts rush of securities lawsuits
Convicted tycoon Bernard Madoff’s ponzi fraud spawned 30% of securities lawsuits worldwide in the first quarter of 2009, research has indicated. Of the 169 new securities lawsuits filed in Q1 this year, 50 related to the Madoff fraud, according to business data company Advisen. ...
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Bids for nuclear development sites, mining rights and property sales
Going nuclear: Magic circle firm Freshfields advised energy company E.ON on its successful bid for nuclear development sites in Oldbury and Wylfa. E.ON, alongside joint venture partner RWE, acquired the land at a Nuclear Decommissioning Authority auction, where three sites were sold for ...
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Criminal justice system ‘institutionally sexist’
Women suffer widespread discrimination at all levels of the criminal justice system, including in the legal profession and judiciary, according to a report launched at the Law Society today by equality campaigners the Fawcett Society.
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Law Society of Scotland 60th anniversary conference: Susskind fires private equity warning
Private equity firms are stepping up their interest in English legal practices as they search for lucrative investment opportunities in a difficult market, according to Professor Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? However, the legal services futurologist warned that law firm owners hoping to ...
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LSB consults on regulation of new business structures
The Legal Services Board today stressed its determination to sanction alternative business structures by mid-2011, as it launched a discussion paper on how they will be regulated. The board said it will directly license ABSs if the approved regulators do not seek to become licensing authorities. ...
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Chancery Lane steps in to help run migrant lawyer programmes
The Law Society is to help law firms run internship and secondment programmes that were threatened by new immigration rules by launching a scheme for migrant lawyers under Tier 5 (T5) of the points-based system (PBS). As the overarching body for the scheme, the Society will ...
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Straw drops secret inquest plans
Plans to hold secret inquests without juries have been dropped by the government, justice secretary Jack Straw told parliament today. Straw said in a written statement that the move to introduce non-jury inquests on national security issues did not garner enough support among the parties. Clauses ...
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Who’s calling the regulation shots now? The Legal Services Board
In setting out its views on the regulation of alternative business structures (ABSs) yesterday, the Legal Services Board signalled its willingness to override approved regulators if they don’t get their act together quickly.
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Home working – the antidote to swine flu?
Does it have to take a pandemic or a disaster to make more of home working? Swine flu is a scary thing. No one wants to take any chances with it and some employers are imposing an unofficial quarantine on employees who have recently returned from Mexico.
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Don’t complain that you haven’t been warned
Let’s be honest, no one likes to receive complaints, though some businesses like to burnish their consumer-friendly credentials by pretending that they do. What matters though, ultimately, is how you deal with them.
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Regulation that will have the respect of the regulated
by Robert Heslett is vice-president of the Law Society Lord Hunt’s interim report was delivered earlier this month, immediately ahead of the launch of his roadshows across England and Wales.
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What the Office of the Public Guardian is doing to help you
by Martin John public guardian and chief executive of Office of the Public Guardian The Office of the Public Guardian’s chief executive Martin John acknowledges that people have had problems dealing with the body, but here lays out what he is doing to renew the OPG
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FSA says it will target City professionals in insider dealing fight
City professionals are a priority target for the Financial Services Authority in its battle against insider dealing, the watchdog said this week. The FSA has begun insider dealing prosecutions against two lawyers who had worked in the London offices of US law firms. According to court papers, Andrew Rimmington, formerly ...
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More management speak, anyone?
This week I met up with an experienced entrepreneur and business man, a fellow who had started his own company some years ago and was clearly successful and making money; nothing to do with law. We were talking about business generally and got into profit ratios, business in hand (we ...
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Susskind, Mayson and Hodgart urge firms to plan for the future
If I were a lawyer faced with planning the future of my business at the same time as carrying out my day job, I think I’d feel exhausted, bewildered and not a little terrified.
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Bradley review 'revolution' in mental illness treatment of offenders
A report calling for offenders with mental health problems and learning difficulties to be identified and diverted to health rather than criminal justice services may revolutionise the handling of such cases. Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health problems in the criminal ...
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Top legal aid fee-earners named
The squeeze on legal aid spending has not yet consigned the million-pound-a-year legal aid barrister to history, Ministry of Justice statistics revealed last week. Charles Salmon QC of London’s Hare Court topped the annual league table of the highest-paid criminal legal aid barristers. He received ...
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Law Society to review access to justice
The Law Society has launched a wide-ranging review of access to justice to mark the 60th anniversary of legal aid. Andrew Caplen, chairman of the Society’s access to justice committee, will study the long-term policy options for publicly funded criminal and civil legal services, the Society said this week. ...
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Serious Fraud Office to ask parliament to grant it new powers
The Serious Fraud Office is to ask parliament to enhance its powers to fight fraudulent companies and corrupt directors, the Gazette has learned. The investigation and prosecution agency has begun consulting privately with senior lawyers and officials before it approaches parliament later in the year. Sources close to the discussions ...