Last 3 months headlines – Page 1526
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Lawyers 'optimistic' over legal services reform
Alternative business structures will bring more work for high street and other firms as the big brands educate the public that they need to make a will, solicitors have suggested in a recent report. However, practitioners also indicated that the cost of regulation is driving some ...
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Lloyds Banking Group to review conveyancing panel
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to review the criteria for membership of its conveyancing panels and reduce the number of firms it instructs using a ‘risk based’ model that it says will allow it to assess firms individually. The group, which includes Lloyds TSB; Halifax; Bank ...
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Government announces consultation on Jackson’s CFA reforms
No-win no-fee agreements will be the focus of a government consultation on Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for reforming civil litigation costs, the government announced today. In a written ministerial statement laid before parliament this morning, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said that the reform of conditional fee ...
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Insurers set to move into small firm market
Broker Marsh is in discussions with two major insurers to open their doors to two- and three-partner firms, it has said. At a press briefing last week, Janine Parker, head of solicitors’ professional indemnity, said that Marsh is ‘trying to put together a solution for two- ...
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Judiciary reprimanded for inappropriate comments
Twenty-eight judicial office holders were removed from office last year, a 12% rise on last year, and a further 18 resigned during conduct investigations, according to the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report published yesterday. Matters investigated by the OLC included one instance where a magistrate ...
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Will Nick Green QC’s question on drugs possession be heard by government?
In his recent report to the profession, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC attracted headlines by raising the question of whether personal possession of drugs should be decriminalised.
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New insurer to enter PII market
A new insurer is to enter the solicitors’ professional indemnity market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society revealed today. Vision Underwriting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Limited (LMIE), which is a member of US Group Liberty ...
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Criminal procedure
Road traffic – Aiding and abetting – Death by dangerous driving – Jury directions R v Paul David Martin: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Gross, Judge Moss QC): 6 July 2010 ...
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Immigration
Homosexuality – Persecution – Refugees HJ (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HT (Cameroon) (appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: SC (Lords Hope, Rodger, Walker, Collins, Sir John Dyson): 7 July 2010 ...
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Administrative law
Penology and criminology – Imprisonment – Release on licence R (on the application of Ellerton) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Richards, Goldring): 7 July 2010 ...
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What litigators need to know about the forensic investigation process
In today’s electronic world, where filing cabinets of information can be copied onto a device small enough to swallow, litigators are increasingly turning to forensic investigators to help identify the data that could make or break their case. This is creating a growing industry, from specialist teams within the big ...
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Probate – resulting trust and joint bank accounts
Joint bank accounts often give rise to problems on death, either because of uncertainty as to the extent of the deceased’s interest or because of uncertainty as to the correct inheritance tax (IHT) treatment.
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The yoke's on you
Is there, Obiter sometimes wonders, a genetic imperative encoded into the DNA of every solicitor, that makes them physically unable to allow any error to slip past uncorrected? It is, no doubt, this unrelenting quest for accuracy – rather than any desire to make mischief – that prompted Neil Howlett, ...
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The MoJ’s structural reform plan replaces targets with timetables
At last, we have some idea of what the Ministry of Justice is planning to do during the coming months. It was one of the first departments to publish its so-called structural reform plan, setting out how it will implement the coalition agreement. We can gloss ...
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Why not let us do our own duty rotas?
As one due to depart on annual leave, I feel that the Law Society’s comments on the new duty solicitors rota and the delay in issuing it are well founded. I received the rota only on Monday 12 July and find that, during the subsequent fortnight, I have no fewer ...
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Round and round they go
The golfing event of the year has just finished. Not the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, but a far more impressive two-day golfing marathon just completed by a lawyer from Merseyside firm Weightmans and his colleague. David Lewis, head of the firm’s Liverpool office and Nick Wilson, health and ...
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Safety first at work
Last year saw the lowest number of employment-related fatalities. As a claimant personal injury lawyer I feel a sense of relief. There I was thinking I was an ambulance-chasing waste of space, with no social utility or worth. Perhaps the ‘potty’ Brussels ‘bureaucrats’ who inflicted ...
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Solicitor ahoy
At this time of year the need for a holiday becomes urgent, but for many it is still some weeks off. Many solicitors will find their gaze wandering from the contract in front of them, through the grimy window of their offices, their minds already picturing the exotic delights of ...
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Brand support to give solicitors competitive advantage
Much has been written about the pace of change, smart systems and the threat of consumer-centric major competitors. Fortunately, I believe there are some tasks, for example those requiring our deepest knowledge and expertise, which considered alongside clients’ desire for a face-to-face relationship, that will still require the traditional lawyer. ...