Last 3 months headlines – Page 1498
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Solicitors sue police and Prison Service
Three solicitors are suing the police and Prison Service after being arrested and detained for storing a dictation device and memory sticks in the wrong lockers during prison visits. The three lawyers were among five solicitors who were held at HMP Brixton in unconnected incidents, following ...
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Senior judge slams court closures
The senior presiding judge for England and Wales has criticised the government’s plans to close 157 courts, in a consultation response intended to reflect the views of many judges and magistrates. Lord Justice Goldring (pictured) said he was ‘particularly concerned’ about the impact of the proposed ...
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Profession facing 'demographic time bomb'
Legal aid lawyers have warned of a ‘demographic time bomb’ facing the profession as the number of young criminal defence lawyers declines as a result of uncertainty over the future of criminal legal aid. Law Society head of legal aid Richard Miller said the number of ...
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Law Commission launches consultation over new fitness test
The Law Commission has launched a consultation proposing an overhaul of the rules governing who is considered mentally fit to stand trial. The commission suggests scrapping the current ‘fitness to plead’ rules which have been in place since 1836, and replacing them with a procedure that ...
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BPP Law School defends new centres
BPP Law School has defended its decision to open three new branches next year, amid concerns over the lack of training contract places available for legal practice course graduates. The law school will launch LPC courses in Newcastle, Liverpool and Cambridge next autumn, providing 180 new ...
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Employment fears spark call surge
Government spending cuts have triggered a sharp rise in employment law queries from consumers in the last three months, according to statistics from law firm network Contact Law seen by the Gazette. Employment-related calls accounted for one-fifth of the 28,000 calls received by the service in ...
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Lawyers call for details of £350m legal aid budget cut
Lawyers have called on the Ministry of Justice to give details of how it intends to cut £350m from the legal aid budget, following the outcome of the government’s spending review, announced last week. Chancellor George Osborne told the House of Commons that the MoJ’s current ...
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Children 'at risk' over court fees
Solicitors have warned that local authorities may be deterred from placing vulnerable children into care, following the government’s decision not to scrap the controversial court fees paid by councils in care and supervision cases. In a ministerial statement last week, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said the ...
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Solicitor jailed for fraud
A Canterbury solicitor has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to 14 fraud-related offences. Derek Speed, a former probate solicitor at Kent firm EMD Law, was sentenced last week after admitting the counts of fraud at Maidstone Crown Court.
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New advocacy proposals 'prejudice' solicitors
A proposed new quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates could prejudice solicitors because it places too much weight on the views of judges, an advocates group has warned. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has voiced concerns about the ‘over-reliance’ on judicial evaluation proposed ...
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Supreme Court backs right to police station advice
Defence lawyers have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling confirming the right to legal advice at the police station, and warned that the Ministry of Justice will have to ‘think carefully’ before introducing any reform that seeks to limit it. Giving judgment in an appeal from the ...
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New book offers intriguing analysis of role of feminist judges
Is it possible to be both a judge and a feminist? That’s the intriguing question posed by Baroness Hale in her foreword to a fascinating new book, Feminist Judgments from Theory to Practice (Hart Publishing, £22.95). Hale is, of course, the UK’s most senior woman judge. ...
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LSC rules out appeal against family tender judgment
The Legal Services Commission has announced that it will not appeal against the High Court’s judgment following the Law Society’s successful challenge to the family tender process. It said any appeal would only prolong uncertainty over the future of the family contracts, causing difficulties for ...
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Sketch show
You can’t beat a good courtroom drama. So Obiter was delighted to receive a review copy of court artist Patricia Coleman’s sketches, brought together in a book with text by Evening Standard courts correspondent Paul Cheston. It includes scenes from some of Obiter’s favourite cases, from the appearance of Catherine ...
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Excellence adventure
There was quite a buzz at the Law Society’s packed Excellence Awards at Old Billingsgate in London last week. Nigel Priestley, who received the prestigious gong of private practice Solicitor of the Year, used the podium to praise the success of Huddersfield Law Society’s twinning project with Uganda, which he ...
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Blonde ambition
Another chance for Gazette readers to win tickets to Obiter’s favourite legal-themed West End show, Legally Blonde: the Musical. For anyone unfamiliar with the plot, college sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods (played by Sheridan Smith) ‘doesn’t take no for an answer’. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, November 1960 United Law Debating Society – Institutional AdvertisingOn October 3 the Society debated the motion: ‘This House believes that it would be desirable if the restriction on advertising by the ...
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Proactive firms are setting the pace for change
Membership of a respected profession once conferred a much greater equivalence of proficiency and status than it does today. Consider the almost comical horror with which many lawyers formerly greeted the notion that solicitors should be allowed to differentiate themselves...
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Radmacher judgment will boost demand for pre-nups – but issues remain
by Alison Bull, team leader associate at Mills & Reeve Publicity surrounding the Supreme Court’s judgment in Radmacher (rather than the outcome of the case) is likely to be the single most important factor in increasing demand for pre-marital agreements.
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Vulnerable people 'not consumers'
In the interview with Jonathan Djanogly it is interesting to note that, while not wanting to discuss the legal aid budget, the minister is quoted as saying: ‘Our priority is not about what lawyers do or the number of lawyers there are doing things. Our priority is legal representation ...