Last 3 months headlines – Page 1175
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Courts: going private is no panacea
by Francesca Kaye, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association The government is right to be thorough in its determination to cut waste and excess in public services, and achieve greater efficiency, particularly in the current economic climate. However, the news that this quest may lead ...
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Blair's lord chancellor reforms ruining constitution
In his admirably lucid and revelatory account of the removal of Lord Irvine from the office of lord chancellor, and the destruction of the office itself, by his ungrateful pupil Tony Blair, Joshua Rozenberg has pinpointed a key moment in our recent legal history.
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Cocts management: unintended consequences
Recent changes to the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2013 are affecting the way solicitors and litigants approach cases concerning the management of costs. The recent changes include the small claims track limit being increased from claims valued up to £5,000 to claims valued up to ...
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Grayling’s legal aid ignorance
Now the cat is out of the bag. Chris Grayling told Catherine Baksi in her interview with him: ‘I don’t believe that most people who find themselves in our criminal justice system are great connoisseurs of legal skills…’
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Civil legal aid: an attack on those in need
There is a risk that the bad news about the impact of the Transforming Legal Aid proposals on civil legal aid will be buried by criminal practitioners’ (justified) outrage about compulsory competitive tendering. Under the civil proposals, those unable to prove 12 months’ lawful residence ...
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Money laundering still dogs us
There is plenty of backstage manoeuvring in the development of legal policy. Often the most interesting work cannot be written about, to protect the confidentiality of our members’ views or our interaction with outside bodies. At the same time, I think: ‘But the wider legal profession should know about this!’
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Legal aid: the right to choose
There is an aspect of the current criminal legal aid proposals that ought to be brought to general attention. The proposal to deny the right of choice of lawyer runs contrary to government policy. On 29 March 2012 the prime minister announced that he intended ...
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Spelling bee
It was with interest that I noted Obiter’s recent nod to a syntax error on the website of Dynamo Legal (dynamolegal.com), the so-called ‘superbrand’ headed by Alex Mills of BBC’s The Apprentice ‘fame’. Perhaps the young Mr Mills can be excused for the odd gremlin ...
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Wax works to tame depression
To Herbert Smith Freehills on London’s Exchange Square, where comedian Ruby Wax (pictured) added some showbiz glamour to a relaunch of the firm’s mental health programme. Wax, who publishes a book on ‘mindfulness’ this summer (Sane New World: How to Tame the Mind), mixed candour with humour as she spoke ...
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Best go to Tesco? Er, no
Legal aid lawyers have a belligerent ally in the Guardian’s star columnist Zoe Williams, who directed a withering broadside at the government’s PCT plans last Saturday. Still, quite a few solicitors will have choked on their morning croissant at her revelation that Tesco plans to bid for a contract. Maybe ...
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Commercial courts (that’s all of them)
The Gazette lays claim to this week’s Mystic Meg award for idle speculation that turned out to be not as idle as a reader might have supposed. An editor’s blog last month fingered HM Courts & Tribunals Service as ripe for privatisation, what with its (largely) ramshackle estate, odd plum ...
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When science doesn’t have the answer
The sad story of the couple found dead in the swimming pool reminded me of one case which forensic science failed to solve. This concerned New Zealand-born Rhodes scholar and scientist Gilbert Stanley Bogle, who was found dead along with his companion, Margaret Chandler, at ...
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Panel firms named as claims against NHS soar
The Department of Health has announced its roster of defendant panel firms that will share a £400m contract for the NHS in England over the next four years. After a tender process lasting several months, successful bidders were informed this morning. ...
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Streaming the Supreme Court
Television has for a number of years been a reason why people ultimately decide to become lawyers. From fictional characters, programmes such as Rumpole, Judge Deed, LA Law and Silks, we are offered a creative window into the world of the legal profession. But what about real lawyers?
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National protest marks end of legal aid consultation
Lawyers across England and Wales will unite for a 'minute of unity' at 09.59 tomorrow to mark the deadline for responses to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation, which they warn will have a devastating effect on the criminal justice system. The Law Society has backed ...
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Bar regulator condemns legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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Bar bodies condemn legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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News
Inspectors call for streamlined criminal justice process
Inspectors of police service and prosecutors have called for decisive action to streamline the criminal justice process and end ‘the spectre of unnecessary bureaucracy’. In a joint report published today HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) identify factors that create ...
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In-deed bows out of ABS venture
The ‘cottage industry’ nature of the conveyancing market makes the failure of conveyancing service In-deed Online ‘unsurprising’, the Gazette has been told. AIM-listed In-deed Online announced last week that it is to sell for £1 a law firm alternative business structure (ABS) that it acquired, along ...