Headlines – Page 1562
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Family barristers protest at cuts
Family barristers are to lobby the government to halt proposed cuts in legal aid, which they say will force experienced practitioners out of publicly funded work. At a meeting last weekend, attended by more than 300 family barristers in London, with 250 joining via videolink, members ...
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Treasury warns firms of money-laundering threat
The government has warned law firms and others subject to anti-money laundering regulations that a number of countries pose a ‘serious threat’ to their businesses. The Treasury today named several countries which it says do not have proper procedures or systems in place to prevent money ...
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Spending watchdog raps Crown Court IT failures
Inadequate IT systems in Crown Courts mean staff are having to spend 12 hours a month on administrative work re-keying data, at a cost of £300,000 a year. The CREST system, which has been used to manage cases in the Crown Court for 20 years, has ...
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BSB consults on conduct rules for barristers
The Bar Standards Board has today (13 March) published a consultation paper on proposed new conduct rules for 14,000 barristers in England and Wales. The paper proposed conduct rules that are underpinned by seven core duties. The board believes that this approach creates a ‘more ...
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Government amends secret inquest plans
The government is revising plans for non-jury inquests included in the Coroners and Justice Bill, limiting the circumstances in which such inquests can be held. The revisions will allow for more judicial involvement and discretion, offering more balances and checks, the Ministry of Justice said. ...
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Eversheds stays top in adviser rankings
National firm Eversheds advises more stock market clients than any other law firm, according to the latest quarterly rankings from investment adviser Hemscott. However, nearly all the firms featured in Hemscott’s rankings saw client numbers fall in the most recent three-month period surveyed. Eversheds topped the ...
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Occupational hazards: the competing rights of spouses and creditors
Over recent years a tussle has been going on between the competing rights of spouses and creditors and the inter-relationship of the Insolvency Act 1986, the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA) and the ancillary relief regime.
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HMRC publishes tax law rewrite bills
Two draft bills aimed at cleaning up UK corporation tax and international tax legislation have been published by HM Revenue & Customs. The bills, drafted by the Tax Law Rewrite project, form part of a scheme begun in 1996 to rewrite the majority of direct tax ...
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A round-up of recent events in probate
The statutory legacy payable on intestacy to surviving spouses and civil partners rose as of 1 February 2009 to £250,000 where there are children and £450,000 where there are no children but parents or siblings.
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Financial regulation
Legal profession – Partnerships – Conduct of business – Financial promotion Financial Services Authority v Fox Hayes (a firm): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Longmore, Wilson, Lawrence Collins): 17 February 2009 ...
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Human rights
Freedom of expression – Intelligence of services – Investigatory Powers Tribunal – Emanations of the Crown A v B: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Laws, Rix, Dyson): 18 February 2009 ...
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Is being mentally ill tantamount to a criminal offence in Britain?
Gazette reporter Jonathan Rayner writes about the journey his son and he have taken through an increasingly dysfunctional system. My son is out of prison now. Patrick (not his real name) has a mental illness, which seems to be ...
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Prison – Five hundred years of life behind bars
Edward Marston The National Archives, £18 From the building of the Tower of London in 1068 to the last executions in 1964, Edward Marston’s Prison is a compelling historical tour of punishment in Britain ...
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The Associate
John GrishamCentury, £18.99 A core element of John Grisham’s work is the black-and-white presentation of good and evil – this is what makes his books so successful and also perhaps disappointing. ...
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The Coroner
M R HallMacmillan, £10 The heroine of M R Hall’s debut novel is not your average coroner. Jenny Cooper is a freshly divorced mother and her nervous breakdown, therapy and ...
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Majority stake
It’s been a long and winding road. In 1922, Maud Crofts, Carrie Morrison (pictured), Mary Pickup and Mary Sykes became the first women to qualify as solicitors in England. Sadly, however, the next 35 years of history of women’s achievements in the profession are a little sketchy. It was not ...
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Striding out for cash
Obiter was tantalised by the arrival of a message entitled ‘solicitor does a runner’. The email contained a link to the news that Geoff Gafford, from Chipping Norton firm Dyakowski Gafford, is legging it up north. Not with the contents of the firm’s ...
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How’s that?
The West Indies have been racking up huge batting totals in the Caribbean this winter (Ramnaresh Sarwan, 291, Barbados, springs to mind). These gritty performances have in turn caused great anguish for the English bowling attack. Unfortunately, Obiter has to predict that the pained expressions of Andrew Strauss & Co ...
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Where there’s a will...
Solicitors working pro bono have raised £775,000 for charity through the 2008 Will Aid campaign. The campaign involved preparing wills for people free of charge, but inviting them to make a voluntary donation to a charitable fund. Lauren Smith of Sheffield firm Watson Esam raised more than £4,000 in a ...
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Post-recession: the state of the legal landscape
One of the advantages of being president of the Law Society is that people generally don’t turn down an invitation to speak to you about their work. I must confess that I exploited this benefit to the full recently when I asked Professor Richard Susskind to drop by at a ...