Last 3 months headlines – Page 1510
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Why the timidity around billing?
In the current economic environment, law firms, like other businesses, are keeping a close eye on cashflow. This is always a particular concern for professional firms, who are rarely paid up front for their services.
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Even judges are powerless in the face of family cuts
Like his predecessor Sir Mark Potter, Lord Justice Wall is not afraid to tell it like it is when it comes to problems in the family justice system.
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Law Society doubles Diversity Access Scheme places
A Law Society scheme that aims to improve social mobility in the legal profession is to double the number of candidates it takes on next year. The Diversity Access Scheme (DAS) supports entrants to the solicitors' profession who face exceptional social, educational, financial or personal obstacles ...
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LSC puts its case in family judicial review
On the second day of the Law Society’s judicial review of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for family legal aid work, counsel for the LSC today told the High Court that it should have been ‘obvious’ to solicitors that panel membership was going to be an important factor in the ...
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Immigration
Administrative decision-making – Armed forces – Character – Conduct R (on the application of Charly Ngouh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Foskett): 27 August 2010 ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, September 1970 View from the countryI will not easily forget the case of Milton v Shrewsbury. It never found its way into any law ...
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Sentencing
Criminology – Long-term prisoners – Rape – Release on licence R (on the application of Webb) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Pill, Wilson, Sullivan): 8 September 2010 ...
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Not right to reply
It’s fair to say that, what with the mayhem that is the civil legal aid tender and the recent debacle over late payments (to cite but two examples) the Legal Services Commission cops a fair amount of stick from the Gazette and its readers at times. It does seem reasonable ...
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Words of warning
On the subject of semantics, a group of international law experts has claimed that the use of ‘unclear language’ by lawyers and other professionals was to blame for the recent economic meltdown. Clarity, the association of lawyers, judges and lay people which promotes the use of plain legal language, said ...
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Grammar, we love you
Every year, when a fresh intake of students begin their law degrees, British legal academics quietly shake their heads and mutter to one another about the poor standard of written English of many of their new charges – and they are not talking about the foreigners. So it’s always comforting ...
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The Audit Commission and legal professional privilege
On 13 August 2010, communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles announced the Audit Commission’s forthcoming demise. He claimed that the commission had ‘lost its way’, moving from being a watchdog championing taxpayers’ interests to a ‘creature of the Whitehall state’.
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Corporate governance and coping with visits from the FSA
The telephone rings. It’s reception. Financial Services Authority investigators are downstairs with a search warrant. How prepared are you to respond to such a knock at the door? That question has been put high on the agenda of in-house lawyers as the regulatory and business crime regime becomes ever more ...
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How to construct the foundations
In the article How Leeds law firms are battling the downturn, Karen Eckstein says: ‘There’s not a comprehensive handbook which tells you how to do it’ (set up a law firm). This ex-Leeds solicitor turned to the excellent Setting Up and Managing a Legal Practice by Martin Smith, published by ...
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Baroness Prashar steps down as chair of the JAC with a parting shot
by Baroness Prashar It is a testament to the cooperative approach shown by the Law Society and the hard work of commissioners and staff at the Judicial Appointments Commission that the Society now has confidence in the openness and fairness of our selection process.
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Culture clash and compensation
Below is a brief note addressed to Lord Young in relation to a story in last Saturday’s Telegraph. Dear Lord Young I ...
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Beware of rising pension charges
I have just received notification from the NHS that, provided my Pension Share Order is received by 31 December 2010, the implementation charge will be £393.62, including VAT. If it is received after 1 January 2011, the charge will be £2,760, including VAT. I calculate ...
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Migration limits threaten UK's position as a prominent legal centre
A welcome schism has opened up in the coalition; welcome to City law firms, at any rate. Vince Cable, whose increasingly Eeyore-like deportment has not gone unnoticed among political scribes, has hit out at proposed limits on non-EU highly skilled migration. In a Financial Times interview, he claimed that companies ...
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Eschig ruling and non-panel firms
The article FSA underlines policyholder right to choose solicitor could leave some readers with the impression that the Eschig judgment has in some way affected the position of already-compliant legal expenses insurers, which is not the case.