Last 3 months headlines – Page 1542
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Employment
Civil procedure – Ballots – Compliance – Industrial action British Airways Plc v Unite the Union: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Lady Justice Smith): 20 May 2010 ...
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Daunting challenges that sole practitioners face may jeopardise their future
by Lawumi Biriyok, a principal at London firm Biriyok Show, and is chair of the Sole Practitioners Group Mortgage lenders have failed to appreciate the embarrassment caused to sole practitioners (SPs) resulting from their unjust and unwarranted decisions to remove conveyancing SPs from their panels.
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What are people posting about your firm?
Curiously, some Gazette readers saw fit to shoot the messenger when we exposed the egregious activities of blacklisting website Solicitorsfromhell, whose owner charges solicitors and firms for the removal of third-party postings. We were accused of somehow being complicit in this distasteful and cynical enterprise. In ...
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A new government offers an opportunity to look afresh at old issues
Earlier in the year, before the election, the Law Society brought its major concerns, anxieties and ideas together in one handy document, Delivering Justice: The Law Society Manifesto. The main theme was that of curbing the increasing power of the state and safeguarding the freedom of the individual.
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Employment law: the Equality Act 2010 – pressing the launch button
Not all good ideas make the grade. Hover cars, that dream of youth, have still to take off and the BBC has cancelled my suggested Tolkien-based detective series, Midsommer Mordor. Pity.
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City firm Denton Wilde Sapte set to decide on transatlantic merger
Partners at City firm Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal are set to decide next Wednesday whether to give the green light to a merger of the firms. The merged firm, SNR Denton, would comprise 1,400 lawyers and boast combined revenues of ...
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Top firms suffer revenue fall – but profits rise
Revenues at top law firms have slipped over the last year, but some firms have seen a significant recovery in partner profits, early results suggest. Of the three major firms that had reported financial results for 2009/10 as the Gazette went to press, all saw falls ...
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Amend the brothel closure laws now
by Nichi Hodgsonan editorial assistant on the Gazette/sections magazines publishing team Changes to the laws on prostitution that were intended to make life safer for women sex workers have actually made matters worse.
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High street firms ‘can survive’ in post-Legal Services Act market
High street solicitors can survive in the post-Legal Services Act market, but need a more creative approach to pricing, branding and service delivery, according to a group of key industry figures. At a roundtable debate last week marking the launch of Shopping Around, a report published ...
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Michael Mansfield QC honoured at Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards
Civil rights barrister Michael Mansfield QC received the outstanding achievement accolade at the eighth Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards last week. Mansfield, who retired from practice last year, was honoured for a career that spanned 40 years, during which he acted in high-profile cases ...
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SRA drafts rulebook for new regulation regime
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued a first draft of the 10 new principles which will form the basis of a new ‘outcomes-focused regulation’ regime. The broad principles are contained in a simplified handbook published for consultation by the SRA last week. ...
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European Commission to split justice department in two
The European Commission (EC) is set to transform the way justice is administered across member states, it has emerged.
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Call for new litigation funding model
A new model of litigation funding is needed to secure access to justice for people of limited means, academics said this week. A joint study by the University of Oxford and the University of Lincoln suggested that, while third party funding has improved access to justice ...
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RTA claims portal ‘progress’ – but 50 firms still without login details
Some 50 law firms were still awaiting delayed login details for the new road traffic accident (RTA) claims exchange as the Gazette went to press because of a ‘processing error’. In addition, some firms were still unable to plug their case management systems into the RTA ...
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Luton solicitor jailed over £158k fraud
A Luton solicitor has been jailed for 12 months for falsely claiming more than £150,000 from the Legal Services Commission. Najaf Shah, who worked at Alexander Solicitors and Advocates in Luton, submitted fraudulent legal aid bills totalling £158,000. In one instance he claimed for 101 prison ...
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Lord Lester’s bill a ‘catalyst’ for libel reform
Liberal Democrat peer and barrister Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC has introduced a private member’s bill to reform the country’s ‘archaic’ libel laws. The peer’s Defamation Bill is designed to clarify and modernise the law of libel, protecting both the rights to reputation and freedom ...
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MoJ admits drafting error in fee-capping regulations
Acquitted defendants can claim the full cost of private legal fees, after the Ministry of Justice admitted there is a drafting error in the regulations intended to implement its controversial policy to cap awards. The admission came in documents submitted by the MoJ in connection ...
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BME solicitors and Chancery Lane devise plan to halt PII discrimination
The Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Forum of solicitors has put into action a ‘five-step plan’ together with the Law Society, which is designed to protect BME lawyers from discrimination when renewing their professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover. Law Society head of equality and diversity Pat ...
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LSC accused of squandering millions on VHCC tender process
Legal aid lawyers have accused the Legal Services Commission of wasting ‘millions’ on the tender process for the very high cost cases (VHCC) litigator’s panel. The LSC announced last week that the panel will be scrapped in July, after being in place for only two years. ...
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No way through the RTA portal
The MoJ RTA web portal continues to suffer from bad planning, implementation and a failure to consult. One legal software company has sent this communication to its clients: ‘We are pleased to announce that we can now provide Phase 1* ...