Last 3 months headlines – Page 1524
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Legal bidding website launched
A new website that provides a forum where law firms can bid for legal work launched last week. The site, bid4fees.com, provides an online platform for prospective clients to confidentially list their legal problems and find a lawyer to advise them. ...
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Chartis delivers professional indemnity insurance blow
The UK’s largest professional indemnity insurer does not have an ‘appetite’ to take on new law firms with fewer than 10 partners, it told the Gazette this week. Chartis, previously AIG, which had a 15% share of the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market last year, ...
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New governments mean new marketing opportunities for law firms
Whatever your political views, there’s no doubt that a new government can provide excellent marketing opportunities for law firms – particularly those firms that like to keep their clients up to date with the latest legal developments.
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Do concerns over rule of law in the Maldives signal trouble in paradise?
A crisis is brewing in the paradise islands of the Maldives.
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Pleural plaques compensation scheme opens
Pleural plaques victims frustrated by a 2007 House of Lords decision on compensation can now claim £5,000 from the government if they lodged a claim before the ruling. The Pleural Plaques Former Claimants Payment Scheme opened yesterday for applications, which must be lodged before 1 August ...
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Consumer contracts - we need an independent ombudsman
It’s not realistic for consumers to seek redress in the courts for unfair contract terms, says Dr Olufemi Amao. We need an independent ombudsman scheme Since the introduction of the Unfair Terms in Consumer ...
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Helping the criminal suspect: the letter of rights
I am in Colorado at the moment, and so you will forgive me if I again use cowboy metaphors to describe the latest actions of commissioner Reding. She has come riding down into the canyon (and there are plenty of those in Colorado), lassoed the horse rustling member states ...
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APIL urges government to tighten grip on claims management companies
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has called on Lord Young to recommend tighter regulation of claims management companies (CMCs) as part of his review of health and safety laws. Senior figures from APIL held a face-to-face meeting with Lord Young of Graffham to offer advice ...
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Will LPO pose a threat to junior lawyers?
So the latest news on private equity investment in law firms is that, as far as the City firms are concerned at least, the investors have gone cold.
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Solicitors ‘delaying’ conveyances due to staff shortages
Staff shortages at conveyancing firms are slowing down property transactions, according to a prominent estate agent and former anti-home information pack campaigner. Nick Salmon, commercial director of independent estate agents Harrison Murray who founded anti-HIP group Splinta, told the Gazette that ‘understaffed’ firms are struggling ...
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Solicitors welcome ruling on asylum deportations
The Law Society has welcomed the High Court’s ruling that the fast-track deportation of foreign nationals, which did not allow enough time for them to seek legal advice, is unlawful. In January 2010, the Home Office widened its policy of waiving the usual 72-hour notice ...
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Civil procedure
Costs – Human rights – Demonstrations Rebecca Hall and Others v Mayor of London (on behalf of the Greater London Authority): CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls, Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Stanley Burton): ...
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Information law: the future
The coalition government has announced a series of legislative proposals and initiatives which will have a big impact on information law. David Cameron has said he wants to rip off the ‘cloak of secrecy’ around government and public services and extend transparency as far as possible.
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Employment and age-old problem
I was very upset to read the letter, titled 'Too old for the legal profession', in which a 59-year-old solicitor said he had been told that he is on the ‘scrapheap’ and unemployable. What on earth are firms thinking? What a fantastic opportunity to employ someone who is likely to ...
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Conveyancing panel concerns
Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it is to remove from its conveyancing panel those firms that carry out a low volume of mortgage work over a rolling 12-month period. Does that mean that Lloyds no longer wishes to look after our low-volume client and office ...
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End of the line for police station advice?
Cuts in the provision of legal aid are perhaps an inevitable if uncomfortable consequence of the economic mess that we find ourselves in. However, we now learn that justice secretary Ken Clarke’s new-found enthusiasm for keeping offenders out of the prison system is matched by contemplation of a plan to ...
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Pots and kettles
The Gazette website reported this week on the dodgy doings of judges and magistrates contained in the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report. Snippets of bad behaviour gleaned from the report included one instance where an unnamed magistrate, presumably in a frightful sulk, refused to return to the courtroom to ...
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Confusion over slots for Criminal Defence Service duty rota
I have reached the end of my tether, with the help of the Legal Services Commission Criminal Defence Service. I realised that the end was in sight when I visited its website on 12 July. The duty rota for our scheme had been published on ...
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Payback time
Ken Clarke is very keen on restorative justice, if we are to believe reports that criminals will be let out of jail early if they say sorry to their victims. Restorative justice is an important way for criminals to realise the human cost of their crimes. And it also happens ...