All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 41
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News
Control orders ‘infringe fundamental principles’
Control orders infringe the most fundamental principles of due process, and should be replaced with surveillance and criminal trial, the Law Society has urged. Control orders are an anti-terrorism power that allows curfews of up to 16 hours a day, electronic tagging, regular home searches and ...
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MoJ to extend Freedom of Information Act
More public bodies are to be opened up to public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), the Ministry of Justice announced today. The MoJ said it will extend the scope of the FOI to make it easier for people to find and use information ...
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RSPCA victory in disputed will
The RSPCA has won an appeal in a dispute over a testator’s intentions where he left assets ‘up to the inheritance tax threshold’. George Mason, who died in June 2007, had written a will leaving ‘the maximum’ that could be free of IHT to his ...
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Expert fees for independent social workers ‘irrational’
The Ministry of Justice is putting the welfare of children caught up in complex family court proceedings at risk, organisations representing independent social work (ISW) expert witnesses have claimed. The British Association of Social Workers and others have written to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke to ...
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Immigration cap ‘unlawful’, court rules
The home secretary’s imposition of a temporary cap on the number of skilled workers allowed into the UK from outside the European Union was ‘unlawful’ and must be annulled, the High Court has ruled.
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Lord chief justice allows Twitter in court
The lord chief justice has issued guidance indicating that journalists and others may tweet from the courtroom, provided this does not interfere with the administration of justice. The decision, contained in interim guidance issued today, comes after journalists were allowed to use Twitter to ...
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Why are lawyers so unpopular with the public?
I thought he was going to hit me, if he didn't fall over first. He hated effing lawyers, he said. He was a bulge-eyed roaring drunk and had got it into his befuddled brain that I was a lawyer, rather than someone who wrote about the ...
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Linklaters tops diversity league table
Magic circle firm Linklaters has topped a league table based on a survey of the demographic diversity of 48 leading law firms, published today. City firms Baker & McKenzie, Norton Rose and Trowers & Hamlins came second, third and fourth respectively. The ...
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Green paper warning from mental health professionals
The government’s pledge to divert mentally ill people away from the criminal justice system and towards health services is ‘strong on rhetoric’, but understates the extent of the problem, mental health professionals have warned. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke’s green paper on sentencing and rehabilitation, published this ...
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News
Students get murder case referred back to Court of Appeal
A group from the University of Bristol have become the first students to succeed in having the case of a convicted murderer referred back to the Court of Appeal through the university’s Innocence Project. The students convinced the Criminal Cases Review Commission to refer the case ...
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Solicitors miss out on judicial posts
Two women and two ethnic minority lawyers were among the 13 candidates recommended for appointment to the High Court in the most recent selection round, the Judicial Appointments Commission has said. The JAC said the appointments would increase ethnic minority representation in the court to ...
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Libel defence broadened to reflect internet age
The first libel case to be appealed to the Supreme Court has seen a defence dating back to Victorian times broadened to meet the needs of the internet age. In Spiller v Joseph, Lord Phillips said the defence of ‘fair comment’, which places a burden on ...
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Academics warn against restricting qualifying law degrees
Proposals to tighten the regulation of collaborative arrangements between law schools in the UK and overseas are ‘unfortunate’ in an increasingly global market, and will encourage box-ticking rather than an evaluative approach, academics have warned. Collaborative arrangements for Qualifying Law Degrees (QLD) allow the delivery of ...
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Firms tighten spending on support staff and training
Law firms are controlling costs in the economic downturn by increasing the ratio of fee-earners to support staff and by spending less on learning and development, a survey has revealed. The survey of 47 medium to large firms by management and human resources consultancy Agenda Consulting ...
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Paralegals seek right to advise in redundancy cases
Paralegals have called upon the government to allow them equal status with solicitors when working on compromise agreements in redundancy cases.
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Mexican lawyers honoured with human rights award
Two Mexican lawyers have won a prestigious human rights award for obtaining a landmark judgment recognising a new type of gender-based violence known as ‘femicide’. David Peña Rodriguez and Karla Micheel Salas Ramirez received the award from the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe ...
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Fixed-share partner loses appeal
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an earlier ruling that a solicitor who was a fixed-share partner in a Bournemouth law firm is not entitled to seek to claim unfair dismissal from the firm, because he cannot be classed as an ‘employee’. Martin Tiffin, a former ...
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EU to the rescue on legal aid?
The government could be forced into ‘a humiliating U-turn’ over plans to cut the legal aid budget, following an EU pledge to set mandatory levels of civil and criminal legal aid for member states from 2013, it was suggested last week.
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Immigration cap unveiled
The Home Office has announced a 21,700 annual cap on the number of skilled immigrants from outside the EU allowed into the UK, in a move that will disappoint those in the legal profession concerned that the limit will prevent them from employing the foreign lawyers needed to service clients. ...
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Calls for major reform to law training
Pressure mounted for sweeping reform of the education and training of lawyers this week, as regulators announced a root-and-branch review of the current framework. The review was unveiled as research seen by the Gazette suggested that there are currently three times more final-year law students who ...