All articles by John Hyde – Page 333
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News
Trainee retention figures hold up
Leading firms in England and Wales retained 79% of their trainees once they had qualified in 2012, new figures reveal. The Chambers Student guide surveyed 123 mostly commercial firms and found that 2,074 out of 2,620 trainees remained at their first firm. ...
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New model pioneers win ABS status
Two of the highest-profile flagbearers for new models of legal service ownership have won approval as alternative business structures. Knights Solicitors, owned by James Caan’s private equity vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw, and stock exchange-listed personal injury company Quindell Portfolio were both confirmed as ABSs by the Solicitors ...
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PI sector predicts jobs haemorrhage
Three-quarters of personal injury firms are planning to cut staff numbers in the near future unless the government pulls back from plans to reform civil litigation. A survey carried out by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers found that 118 of the 155 firms questioned ...
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Plea over fixed costs for mesothelioma cases
Asbestos campaigners have warned the government it would be a mistake to introduce blanket fixed costs for all mesothelioma cases. Justice minister Helen Grant confirmed last month that a consultation will start in the spring on reform of mesothelioma cases. Proposals will ...
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News
Come on, let’s fix this car insurance racket
I thought I must have been mishearing for a second. On Monday night Channel 4’s Dispatches programme proclaimed that it would expose the reality behind high insurance premiums. Then I almost fell off my chair – it turns out ambulance-chasing lawyers are not solely to blame. ...
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News
We’re still on course for referral fee ban, says SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not ask for a delay to the imminent ban on referral fees, despite warnings that the timetable is being rushed. The SRA board will meet on 23 January to finalise the SRA Handbook’s wording on the ban, which comes into force for personal injury claims ...
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High street PI giant announces redundancies
A personal injury firm claiming to have the biggest high street presence in the UK has announced up to 13 redundancies. Forster Dean began consultation with the affected staff members, including 10 solicitors, this week as a direct response to the government’s civil justice reforms. ...
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News
2012 ‘record year for mergers’
More than a quarter of top-100 firms were involved in a merger in 2012, in what has been described as a record year for deals. Research by Jomati Consultants has found that 26 deals were announced by top-100 firms during the past 12 months. ...
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News
Law firms defy City gloom with 20,000 new hires
Employment at City law firms has grown by 20,000 in the space of a year, according to a new report. The annual health check on the UK’s financial and professional services industry by City cheerleader TheCityUK reveals that 339,700 people are now employed in legal services, ...
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News
Grayling falls for great insurance con trick
Chris Grayling must be an easy man to play at Call my Bluff. It sometimes appears as if you can tell the justice secretary any tall tale and he’ll suck it in – safe in the knowledge that he’s doing the right thing because someone has ...
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News
Radical PI reforms spell ‘disaster’
Lawyers on both sides of the personal injury sector have rounded on the government after the latest announcement in an unprecedented series of radical reforms. Justice secretary Chris Grayling on Tuesday outlined proposals to raise the upper limit of the small-claims track from £1,000 to £5,000 ...
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News
MoJ must slash £2.5bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will have to cut more than £2.5bn – around 28% – from its budget by the end of the current parliament, the department has revealed following last week’s autumn statement. Spending has already been reined in by £580m this financial year ...
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News
Labour takes aim at whiplash reform plan
The government’s whiplash reforms are an attack on access to justice, the legal profession and genuine victims, according to shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter. Slaughter (pictured) accused the government, which unveiled its proposals on Tuesday, of ignoring root causes of problems with personal injury claims, such ...
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News
PC renewals – one-third of the roll still to apply
Almost a third of the expected applications for practising certificate renewal have yet to be started with just four working days until the deadline. Despite repeated pleas from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for early applications, 31% of last year’s PC holders had yet to even start ...
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News
Small claims limit raised to £5,000 in Grayling whiplash plan
Justice secretary Chris Grayling will today unveil his long-expected blueprint for bringing down the number of whiplash claims. In a four-month consultation to be launched this morning, Grayling (pictured) will outline proposals for independent medical panels to diagnose whiplash injuries and raise the small-claims track threshold ...
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News
Smallest firms ‘hardest hit’ by fee rises
The smallest law firms have been hardest hit by this year’s increase in the cost of practising certificates, a finance provider has claimed. Professions finance provider Syscap said sole-trader firms had seen the cost of renewing PCs rise by as much as 40% this year. ...
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News
Trade union giant Thompsons is latest ABS
Trade union personal injury firm Thompsons has become one of the biggest practices yet to be licensed as an alternative business structure. The Solicitors Regulation Authority today confirmed the firm’s application had been successful, along with that of Thompsons-owned subsidiary firm BBH Legal. ...
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News
Voluntary sector should be able to charge - LSB
Not-for-profit groups should be allowed to charge for provision of legal services, the Legal Services Board has said. The super-regulator wants the Solicitors Regulation Authority urgently to remove the current ban on charging. In a response to the consultation on regulation of ...
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LSB ‘still needed’, government tells the Lords
The government has dismissed peers’ calls for the urgent scaling back of the Legal Services Board and described current arrangements as ‘fit for purpose’. Baroness Deech, chair of the Bar ...
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News
Bill would spare ‘innovative’ doctors from negligence risks
Conservative peer Lord Saatchi has introduced a bill that would exempt doctors from being held liable for clinical negligence if they ‘innovate’ during cancer treatment. Saatchi (pictured) brought forward the Medical Innovation Bill after his wife, the writer Josephine Hart, died from peritoneal cancer in June ...