Last 3 months headlines – Page 1513
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MoJ to review media reporting in family courts
The Ministry of Justice has told the Gazette that it will not commence legislation that would extend the media’s right to report family cases without ‘looking closely’ at the changes, amid pressure from family lawyers. Family lawyers have called on the government not to ...
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Akzo Nobel ruling a ‘missed opportunity’ say lawyers
Lawyers expressed dismay this week at a European Court of Justice ruling that legal professional privilege does not apply to legal advice given by in-house lawyers in EU competition law investigations. Ruling in the Akzo Nobel case, the ECJ said that in-house lawyers were not independent ...
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Solicitor charged with theft
A Lincolnshire solicitor has been charged with stealing over a quarter of a million pounds from her former clients. Jacquelina Laverick, who practised under the name Jacqui Johns, appeared at Grantham Magistrates’ Court last week charged with 11 offences of theft totalling more than £250,000, and ...
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Law firms fear school panel axe
Seventeen law firms signed up to advise local authorities on the Labour government’s lucrative school building project will soon learn whether or not their legal panel is to be scrapped. The Department for Education (DfE)’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project was abolished ...
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Lord Bingham – lawyers pay tribute
Tributes have been paid to Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the ‘most respected, distinguished and admired judge of our times’, who died at his home in Wales on 11 September, aged 76.
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Mobile phones, bonds and healthcare
End of the line: Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised mobile phone group Vodafone on selling its $6.6bn (£4.3bn) stake in China Mobile. Freshfields also advised the board of Anglo Irish Bank on its break-up at the behest of the Irish government, ...
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Government cuts must not undermine the constitution
Forget for a moment the row over legal aid tendering – that is nothing compared with what is to come. Judicial review may be an appropriate response to a contracting cock-up, but how do we, as individual solicitors and as a profession, respond to the cuts that are to come?
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Personal injury interest calculation tables
The standard rate of interest on general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenities in personal injury cases was fixed at 2% a year by the House of Lords in Birkett v Hayes [1982] 1 WLR 816; [1982] 2 All ER 70). This was confirmed as appropriate by ...
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The changing relationship between solicitors and barristers
In the debate about how the legal regulators should amend practising rules to allow solicitors and barristers to operate in the new structures modelled in the Legal Services Act 2007, some predicted that the reforms could alter forever the identity of lawyers and lead to fusion – ending the distinction ...
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What the landmark Akzo Nobel ruling means for in-house lawyers
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) this week ruled in the Akzo Nobel and Akcros Chemicals appeals that, under EU law, legal professional privilege does not extend to employed in-house lawyers, thereby confirming existing case law. In 2003, the European Commission and the Office of Fair ...
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Lawyers must argue from the moral high ground if they are to be heard
The TUC conference has achieved limited traction with the media since Margaret Thatcher cowed organised labour by defeating the miners a quarter of a century ago. Not so this year. In approving a coordinated campaign of political and industrial action, the TUC has signalled that the coalition is – after ...
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Client protection
I read with interest, and a degree of optimism, Charles Fuchter’s article entitled The SRA must amend the Code of Conduct or law firms will close on the Gazette website. Mr Fuchter’s comment that ‘mortgage lenders would be required, in effect, to contribute to the ...
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Positive process
In response to John Ford Solicitors’ letter, we have not reduced volume as part of our recent tender for low volume category legal services. New matter start volumes are consistent with those delivered from September 2008 to August 2009. Also, matter starts are ...
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Religious freedom
One way the government could reduce spending, while promoting its ideal of the freedom of the individual, would be to abolish chancel repair liability. If more applications are made by parochial church councils (PCCs) for registration of notices against lay rectors’ titles, leading up to the registration deadline of 12 ...
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Civil Procedure Rules 2010 – latest amendments
With one exception the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2010, and related amendments to the CPR practice directions (PDs) in the 53rd update, come into force on 1 October 2010. Perhaps the most important changes are those which implement three recommendations in Lord Justice Jackson’s (pictured) report on ...
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Paralegal forces removal of posting from solicitorsfromhell website
A London paralegal has forced the removal of a ‘malicious and inaccurate’ posting on the solicitorsfromhell.co.uk website after issuing a claim for defamation against the owner, the Gazette has learned. Max Campbell, a paralegal at McCormacks, spotted the posting on 1 September, which related to his ...
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Should lawyers get out more?
On any weekday, in reception areas from the high street to Herbert Smith, clients are giving their name, then waiting to see their solicitor. Depending on the firm, they might wait looking at a Howard Hodgkin poster in a clip frame, or wait looking at the genuine article – whatever ...
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Law firms reduce carbon footprint
Legal services is among the UK’s most successful business sector for reducing carbon emissions, a report released today reveals. The report, from HRH the Prince of Wales’ Mayday Network, a group of 2,862 companies working towards a sustainable future, found that network constituents had together reduced ...
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National Accident Helpline launches charter for panel firms
National Accident Helpline (NAH) has launched a customer charter for the solicitor firms on its panel, which it said will ‘offer new guarantees of the highest service standards to consumers accessing justice for personal injuries’. NAH, which refers personal injury claims to a panel of 105 ...
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Is the Gazette stuck in a PC straitjacket?
A thought-provoking phone call this week from a solicitor (who wished to remain nameless, of which more below) about the Gazette leader column’s bullish stance on legal aid. It came in the context of this week’s events at the TUC, which is gearing up for a concerted battle over the ...