All articles by James Dean – Page 8
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News
Surprise fall in solicitors' PII bill
Solicitors paid 11% less to insurers for professional indemnity insurance (PII) this year, official figures have revealed. The cost of insuring the profession on the open market in 2010 was £214m, down from £241m in 2009 and £226m in 2008. The fall occurred despite some solicitors ...
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Miners’ compensation claims website under investigation by MoJ
A no win, no fee website set up to farm former coal miners’ undersettlement claims is being investigated by the government claims regulator, the Gazette has learned. The Ministry of Justice is investigating justiceforminers.org.uk after Kevan Jones, Labour MP for North Durham, complained to the claims ...
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QualitySolicitors opens first ‘legal store’
National legal services brand QualitySolicitors today launched its first ‘legal store’ in a shopping centre in London, offering ‘instant wills while you shop’, and late evening and weekend opening. QualitySolicitors Freeman Harris, based in the Lewisham Shopping Centre, is one of 54 new franchises opened by ...
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Mid-tier firms appear set to fall further behind
The UK’s top 10 law firms have shaken off their hangover from the recession – but the chasing pack are still nursing sore heads, if recent numbers are anything to go by.
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Hammonds agrees latest transatlantic merger
Partners at national firm Hammonds and US firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey have approved a merger of the firms, creating a 1,275-lawyer transatlantic practice with $625m (£387m) in combined revenues. The new firm, which will span 17 countries and 37 offices, will be named Squire Sanders ...
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Revenues rise at Allen & Overy
Half-year turnover at magic circle firm Allen & Overy have risen by 3% on last year, the firm reported today. For the six months ending 31 October, turnover at the firm rose to £526m, up from £511m over the same period in 2009. The firm said ...
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Indemnity insurance bill falls to three-year low
Solicitors paid less to insurers for professional indemnity insurance (PII) this year than they did in the previous two years, Solicitors Regulation Authority figures revealed today. The cost of insuring the profession on the open market this year was £214m, down from £241m in 2009/10 and ...
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Bribery Act sparks recruitment drive for compliance lawyers
Leading corporates are hungry for experienced regulation lawyers to bulk up their compliance departments before far-reaching anti-corruption laws are implemented, recruiters told the Gazette this week. With the Bribery Act due to come into force in April, major corporates, especially in heavy industry, are increasingly turning ...
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Clifford Chance sued in New York over redundancies
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance is being sued in New York for alleged discrimination after the firm made six US associates redundant in 2007. Karen Ramdhanie, one of the six associates, alleges in a New York Supreme Court filing lodged last week that Clifford Chance discriminated ...
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Scrap single PII renewal date, report says
Solicitors should not be forced to renew their professional indemnity insurance (PII) on a single date, and the entire conveyancing process should be investigated, a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection has told the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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Mid-tier law firms seek mergers as loans rise
Mid-tier law firms are using increasingly high levels of bank financing, with many seeking to merge to secure their financial position, according to an authoritative survey by accountants PwC published today. The figures show that firms in the top 11-25 bracket now receive 40% of their ...
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Law Society criticises jury trial proposals as 'entirely wrong'
Proposals to scrap jury trials for lesser offences were today criticised by the Law Society as ‘entirely wrong’. Chancery Lane said that the ‘constitutional fabric’ of England and Wales would be put at risk if the proposal by the commissioner for victims Louise Casey is implemented. ...
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Trade union backs asbestos appeal
Trade union Unite will back an appeal to the Supreme Court over the liability of insurers to pay compensation to victims of work-related asbestos exposure, it said yesterday. On 8 October, the Court of Appeal overturned a 2008 High Court ruling on mesothelioma, a cancer of ...
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Personal injury solicitors rebuff ABI claims over ‘excessive’ costs
Personal injury lawyers have hit back at claims that they ‘take motorists for a ride’ by charging high legal fees for settling road traffic accident (RTA) claims. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said last week that legal fees add £40 a year to the average ...
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Abolish single PII renewal date and review conveyancing, says report
The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped, and there should be an investigation into whether more regulation is needed in the conveyancing process, according to a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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Lord chief justice calls for reform of family system
The adversarial court system is not appropriate for settling parental disputes over the custody of children, the lord chief justice said today. Giving evidence to the House of Commons’ justice committee, Lord Judge (pictured) said he has ‘real concerns’ that the adversarial system ‘leaves a ...
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Insurers accused of ‘abusing’ RTA scheme
Insurers are ‘abusing’ the scheme designed to speed up low-value road traffic accident (RTA) personal injury cases, solicitors said this week. The claims cast doubt on Lord Young’s assertion in his recent report on the ‘compensation culture’ that the RTA process ‘provides a model of how ...
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EC in class action plan
The European Commission (EC) will launch a Europe-wide consultation on collective actions next month, as it attempts once again to harmonise laws and improve access to compensation for individuals and small businesses. Announcing the forthcoming consultation in a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain ...
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Investors want law firms with capital
Law firms must bulk up their capital reserves if they want investors to consider them as serious acquisition targets, experts said at the Claims Standards Council’s annual conference last week. Royal Bank of Scotland relationship manager Sara Hutton told delegates that firms should retain up to ...
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Thompsons reprimanded over miners’ claims
The chief executive of national trade union firm Thompsons has been reprimanded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for the firm’s mishandling of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims. In a regulatory settlement agreement signed on 30 September, Stephen Cavalier accepted a severe reprimand on behalf of ...