All articles by John Hyde – Page 359
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News
Top GP backs government plans to check whiplash claims
A leading GP has backed government plans to cut the cost of whiplash claims by requiring claimants to see specialists. Dr Peter Swinyard, chairman of the Family Doctors Association, told the Gazette there had been a marked increase in patients complaining of stiff necks following car ...
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Private equity firm takes stake in ABS
Former Dragon’s Den investor James Caan (pictured) has announced that his private equity company is to invest in a regional commercial firm. Caan’s company Hamilton Bradshaw will invest an undisclosed sum in Staffordshire-based Knights as it applies to become an alternative business structure. ...
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SRA powerless to stop ABSs circumventing referral ban
Regulators have warned they will be powerless to prevent the establishment of companies that would get around the ban on referral fees. Alternative business structures encompassing both law firms and claims management companies may not fall within the scope of any ban, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ...
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Referral fee ban is SRA's mission impossible
As any lazy person knows (I’m told), it’s pretty easy to get out of doing a job you hate. Just moan incessantly about having to make the tea/clean the bathroom/take a trip to Westfield, to the point where you’ll never be asked again. If all else fails, do such a ...
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Executive committee takes reins at regional firm Fosters
A regional firm has ditched the traditional partnership model after clients pressed for a more familiar management structure. Fosters Solicitors, a legal disciplinary practice operating from eight offices across East Anglia, has appointed a new executive committee to take over the day-to-day running of the business. ...
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LSB report highlights web advice shortfall
Consumers of legal services want more tailored support from the internet as a first point of contact for their legal problems, a report has found. Research carried out by the Legal Services Board found consumers were often ‘swamped’ by information online and gave up halfway through ...
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News
Is a 'liberal' approach to knife crime working?
Don’t tell the Daily Mail, but the government is getting softer on knife crime - and it might just be working. Yesterday the Ministry of Justice confirmed the offences and sentencing figures for the first quarter of 2012. You can tell they’re ...
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News
London firms ‘boosted’ by foreign competition
A leading representative of City lawyers has said competition from foreign firms has provided a welcome boost to the London market - and he urged government to do everything possible to encourage more. Alasdair Douglas, chairman of the City of London Law Society, told the Gazette ...
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Call for curbs on legal lobbyists
MPs have called for tighter restrictions on law firms that act as lobbyists for their clients. Firms should be forced to sign up to a new register for lobbyists if they are acting beyond simply advising their clients, they have urged.
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DWF to merge with Scots firm
National firm DWF has announced plans to merge with Scottish firm Biggart Baillie from next month. The business law firm, which last week topped the £100m turnover mark for the first time, will add to its 10 existing offices with further bases in Glasgow and Edinburgh. ...
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News
Let’s stop car insurance blame game
Once you’ve finished this article I urge you to buy the Highway Code. Then spend every waking hour reading it, just to avoid ever getting behind the wheel again.
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Osborne Clarke continues strong revenue trend
National firm Osborne Clarke has reported a new high in revenues for the last financial year of £97.7m. The figure was an increase of 8% on the previous year and reflected the firm’s best financial performance in its history. Net profit increased by 6% during 2011/12. ...
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News
Portal won’t cope with extension, says Law Society
The Law Society will refuse to support an extension of the RTA portal until there are major structural changes to the system. The Society has warned the government it will be impossible to extend the portal to include employer and public liability cases.
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News
Red-tape bonfire plan for legal services bureaucracy
The government will today invite the legal profession to identify business-restricting regulations, naming three ‘sector champions’ as intermediaries. In the legal services stage of prime minister David Cameron’s ‘red tape challenge’ the Ministry of Justice has pinpointed more than 150 regulations suitable for scrutiny. Lawyers will ...
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News
Clarke plea on prisons population
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has called for a ‘pause’ in prison population growth as the numbers creep closer to the UK’s operational capacity. At a hearing of the Commons Justice Committee last week Clarke described overcrowding in UK prisons as ‘one of the scourges of ...
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News
Insurers set for referral to competition watchdog over inflated premiums
Insurance companies are taking advantage of the system to inflate premiums for drivers by £225m a year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) reports today. The competition watchdog says that after a road traffic accident, insurers of the not-at-fault driver and others, such as brokers, ...
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News
Plaid Cymru hails legal devolution
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd has insisted Wales can benefit from a separate legal jurisdiction - despite warnings it may harm the principality’s appeal to business. Llywd told the House of Commons last week that there would be legal and economic advantages to devolving the administration of justice. ...
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News
Former City partner gets three years for £1.3m fraud
A former Hogan Lovells partner has been jailed for three years after defrauding his firm of £1.3m. Christopher Grierson (pictured) was sentenced today at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty in March to four charges of false accounting. Grierson, who was dismissed by his firm in ...
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News
Quiz your broker on fees, Society urges firms
The Law Society will today publish insurance guidance urging solicitors to exercise their rights and find out exactly what their broker is being paid. The 2012 PII Buyers’ Guide will help solicitors find out from their brokers all the fees and commissions they receive - as ...
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News
Call to halt referral fee ‘auctions’
A personal injury solicitor has accused insurance companies of ‘auctioning cases to the highest bidder’. John Spencer (pictured), director of Spencers Solicitors, said some insurers had conducted referral fee auctions amongst solicitors for bundles of cases. The price tag of these bundles was likely to be ...