Headlines – Page 1526
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Costs reforms must avoid creating more problems
by Anthony Hughes, president of the Forum of Insurance LawyersNot since Lord Justice Woolf started his review, Access to Justice, in the late 1990s has there been so much interest in the civil justice system.
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UK has more lifers than rest of Europe combined
England and Wales sentence more prisoners to life than all 46 other Council of Europe member states combined, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform. Figures released this week show that 12,090 men, women and children in England and Wales are serving life sentences, ...
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Society seeks urgent talks after Abbey cuts panel
The Law Society is to hold urgent talk with retail bank Abbey next week after reports that the bank has removed many firms from its approved panel of solicitors without notice. This has affected new start-ups, sole practices and firms not instructed by Abbey for ...
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Driving a hard bargain: the ins and outs of hire claims
Rather than settling down, credit hire claims in many courts all over the country appear to be on the increase. Certain key issues have been settled in three chapters of litigation to have reached the House of Lords: (a) credit hire agreements are not champertous ...
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Family legal aid fees will leave solicitors worse off
The proposed fixed fees for family legal aid work will leave solicitors worse off, according to a Law Society survey published today.
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Allen & Overy hosts launch of pioneering share index
The world’s first stockmarket index for professional services firms was launched this week at the City of London headquarters of magic circle firm Allen & Overy. A key aim of the initiative is to educate analysts and institutional investors about the potential benefits of investing ...
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Trespassing in the public interest; functional entanglement
A Birmingham city councillor was found by the Administrative Court to have breached the council’s Code of Conduct...
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Civil evidence
Real property – Admissibility – Limitations – Without prejudice communications Ofulue & Anor v Bossert: HL (Lords Hope of Craighead, Scott of Foscote, Rodger of Earlsferry, Walker of Gestingthorpe, Neuberger of Abbotsbury): 11 March 2009 ...
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Abbey strikes thousands from conveyancing panel
Hundreds of solicitors across England and Wales reacted with shock and dismay last week after mortgage provider Abbey halved the size of its panel for residential conveyancing. Some 6,050 law firm offices have been removed from the 12,000-strong panel as part of a rationalisation ...
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The history of the Ponzi scheme
The arrest of financier Bernard Madoff on suspicion of running a $50bn fraud offering to pay a steady if suspicious 12% return on investments in good and bad times has had everyone nodding their heads wisely saying, ‘Oh, yes, a Ponzi scheme’. But how many know who Ponzi was or ...
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Into the firing line?
In the show’s best tradition, The Apprentice contestant Anita Shah doesn’t come over as a shrinking violet. But the ‘self-confessed perfectionist’ has a novel strategy for getting ahead in the competition to impress Sir Alan Sugar. Shah reckons that you can be successful by investing ...
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LSB consults on regulatory independence
The Legal Services Board has today (25 March) launched a consultation on regulatory independence. A new document sets out proposals for rules that would require the separation of regulatory work from any representative work at eight approved regulators, including the Law Society. It also deals with rules necessary to approve ...
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Table manners
Another tale of old-school judiciary reaches us from Andrew Firman of Carter Lemon Camerons in Aldersgate St, London. A nervous articled clerk appears for the first time before the Master and, seeing a handy space on the table in front of him, deposits his bag thereon. ‘Young man,’ booms the ...
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Barty calls it a day – after 54 years
Winston Churchill retired, Ruth Ellis was hanged and Bill Haley rocked around the clock. In the same year – 1955 – John Barty qualified as a solicitor. He’s been practising in Bournemouth ever since, mainly as partner and senior partner with Rendall Litchfield, now part of Rawlins Davy. After 54 ...
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Rickett takes 10-race challenge
Jacob Rickett, environmental law assistant at Browne Jacobson in Nottingham, is looking to complete a 10-race challenge in a year – including full and half marathons – to raise money for the charity Arthritis Care. Rickett, 27, has a special reason for his passion. He has been diagnosed with ankylosing ...
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Data page for March 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the Data Page for March 2009 below ...
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Whitehall's concessions over secret inquests are a mixed bag
Can a secret inquest ever be justified after a person has died at the hands of the state? Or does the government deserve some credit for limiting the likelihood that future inquests will be held behind closed doors? That was a key issue that divided MPs as they spent two ...
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Bring on equality
I read with some disbelief Jack Straw’s remarks. On what planet is this man living, or more frighteningly, what planet are those who advise him living on?
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Pay for our offices
I am very encouraged by Jack Straw’s announcement that he thinks it entirely proper that lawyers are paid decent rates and his assertion that we should not expect to be paid more than public sector employees.