All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 40
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What happens when politicians clash with courts over human rights?
‘Is X a good judge?’ one lawyer asked another. There was a pause while the second lawyer weighed his words. ‘There are only good judges and better judges,’ he replied at last. ‘And yes, X is a good judge.’ ...
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NatWest to withdraw LPC study loan product
A decision by NatWest to cease offering preferential loans to students studying the Legal Practice Course has prompted concerns over access to the profession. NatWest, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, is currently the only bank to offer loans under a Professional Trainee Loan scheme for ...
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SRA launches online registration for students
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has today launched an online service that will make it quicker and easier for students to enrol with it when they begin their legal professional training. The system will also enable students to pay their enrolment fee securely online by ...
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Law Society opens its Diversity Access Scheme
The Law Society has opened applications for its Diversity Access Scheme (DAS), aimed at law students facing social, educational, financial or personal obstacles to qualification. The scheme involves the chance to gain a Legal Practice Course scholarship, work experience and mentoring. Previous ...
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Chancery Lane to launch will writing campaign
The Law Society is launching a campaign to ensure that will writers take formal qualifications before attempting to provide a service to consumers. The campaign, which will warn about the financial and other risks of using unqualified will writers, will include lobbying the Lord Chancellor ...
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Law Society warns over control orders
The government’s new counter-terrorism measures continue to put at risk the UK’s unrivalled reputation for upholding the principles of freedom and fairness, the Law Society warned this week.
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Mock trials are an aptitude test that works
Policemen have been looking impossibly young to me for years, but now to my horror some barristers look like they have just stepped out of the school playground, too. The defence counsel I was watching had a mop of fair hair, the fringe overhanging his ...
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VAT victory on personal injury medical reports
Personal injury clients will not have to pay VAT on the cost of medical reports following a successful appeal by a Nottingham law firm, supported by the Law Society, in a tax tribunal last week. Nottingham personal injury and clinical negligence firm Barratt Goff & Tomlinson ...
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Solicitor wants forum for ‘isolated’ NHS lawyers
A solicitor working in the National Health Service wants to create a forum for NHS lawyers, to reduce the sense of ‘isolation’ they may feel. Justin Day, commercial legal adviser at Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust, wants the group to provide a setting ...
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Legal executive numbers grow
The ranks of legal executives are set to swell, as the number of people sitting Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) examinations climbed 40% in 2010 compared with the previous year. The examinations were taken for the Level 3 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice, which is ...
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Students launch pro bono projects
The City Law School has joined forces with civil liberties group Liberty to launch a pro bono human rights advice clinic. The clinic, due to go live imminently, will give student solicitors and barristers a platform from which to advise members of the public on a ...
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College of Law launches two-year law degree
The College of Law has developed a two-year law degree that will focus on improving students’ employment prospects and practical legal skills while covering the curriculum in the same depth as a traditional three-year course, it said this week.
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STEP members optimistic about 2011
More than half of the respondents to a survey of trust and estates practitioners expect that business across all areas of the practice they work in will ‘improve’ or ‘improve significantly’ over the coming year, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) has reported.
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Legal professionals reveal ‘sins’ in survey
One in four lawyers and legal professionals does online shopping at work, while one in eight confesses to doing something at an office party that they later regretted, a recent survey of 500 members of the profession has revealed. Research by twosteps online job board also ...
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More than 1,000 solicitors support Will Aid charity scheme
More than 1,100 solicitors have participated in a will-writing scheme that is set to raise at least £1.5m for nine UK charities. Solicitors all over the country took part in November 2010’s Will Aid campaign, forgoing their usual fee for preparing a will, and instead asking ...
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Solicitors support scrapping default retirement age
Scrapping the default retirement age (DRA) could benefit the economy by retaining ‘talented and skilled’ older employees and creating more jobs for more people, the Law Society has said. The government confirmed last week that from 1 October, employees who reach 65 years of age and ...
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Tribunals Service reports rise in cases
The Tribunals Service received 220,400 new claims in the second quarter of last year, from 1 July to 30 September 2010, representing an 11% increase over the same period in 2009, the latest available statistics have revealed. However, the Service also increased the number of cases ...
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CCBE president pledges to promote access to legal aid
The new president of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has pledged to promote access to legal aid across Europe during his year in office.
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Fraud hits record high, KPMG report claims
Fraud cases in the UK rose by 16% last year to reach a record total of 314 reported incidents, valued at £1.4bn, according to a report by KPMG.
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Employment lawyers are under attack
It is open season on employment tribunals and the ‘parasitical creatures’ (aka employment lawyers) that argue their clients’ cases before them. Maybe it is time that the profession got its public relations act together and took on its detractors at their own game.