Last 3 months headlines – Page 1544
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Civil procedure
Civil evidence – Family law – Maintenance Child Support Agency v Forrest: DC (Lord Justice Elias, Mr Justice Keith): 14 May 2010 The appellant Department for Work and Pensions ...
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Negligence
Contacts – Damages – Legal profession (1) Levicom International Holdings BV (2) Levicom Investments Curacao NV v Linklaters (a firm): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Jacob, Lloyd, Stanley Burnton): 11 May 2010 ...
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When duty calls: solicitor Gordon Turner recounts his experience as a juror
When I received my jury summons last December, I thought there had been a mistake. Aren’t lawyers exempt? I protested and tried to get out of it on compassionate – or any – grounds. I had a new business to run, and my staff needed me (although as it turned ...
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Finding solutions in dispute resolution
The master of the rolls’ call for mediation to become part of every lawyer’s training (see [2010] Gazette, 13 May, 3) is a much welcome endorsement by a member of the senior judicial establishment of the need for a fundamental rebuild of every lawyer’s toolkit.
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Walking wounded
The inference of Paul Rogerson’s In Business feature titled ‘Surveying the damage’ (see [2010] Gazette, 13 May, 14), is that the recession is solely responsible for the dire straits which many hundreds of law firms up and down the country now find themselves in.
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Asylum tragedy
Some time ago, the UK Border Agency decided to grant ‘indefinite leave to remain’ to failed asylum seekers who had lived in the UK for a long period of time (preferably, more than 10 years).
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Hurt in the pocket
We keep hearing about the improvement in the housing market and, as a conveyancing solicitor, I can certainly vouch for this.
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A serious fee?
I wonder whether I am in the majority in disagreeing with the findings of the report on referral fees prepared for the Legal Services Board
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Solicitors must do all they can to avoid being victims of mortgage fraud
by Robert Heslettthe president of the Law Society During my year as president, mortgage fraud has been a recurrent issue. We have consistently provided support to members affected by changes in panel terms and conditions, and have worked to influence the approaches of lenders.
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HIPs: the idea may have been praiseworthy but it was poorly executed
The government’s decision to scrap home information packs was a crowd-pleaser that will have resonated with the public as well as solicitors. Alive to the PR potential of the announcement, ministers staged a rather curious photo opportunity on a pavement outside a London estate agency. ...
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Leading international law experts overlook high-profile failures
Ditchley Park is a sublimely beautiful 18th century mansion in Oxfordshire where the Ditchley Foundation holds impeccably well-run conferences on international affairs. Last weekend, the state of international law was debated by some of the world’s leading experts. I was there too.
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Law Society launches privacy rights initiative
The Law Society has joined forces with surveillance watchdog Privacy International to found a privacy rights centre to provide pro bono legal help to victims of ‘oppressive surveillance’ technologies. The centre will coordinate pro bono privacy advice, advocacy and legal action to uphold individuals’ rights. It ...
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Judicial training drive seeks to foster clarity on citizens’ rights
A Europe-wide judicial training programme to establish a common set of procedural rules and citizens’ rights before the law began this week, as it emerged that there are more than 6,000 violations of judicial procedures currently due to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ...
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UK lawyers raise questions over EU e-justice system
UK lawyers have questioned moves by the umbrella body for Europe’s lawyers to support a common e-justice system spanning the EU. At its meeting in Malaga last week, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) narrowly won support for its plan to assist ...
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Increasing use of Human Rights Act in court
The number of UK court cases making use of the Human Rights Act 1998 has risen for the first time in seven years, according to research by Sweet & Maxwell. The number of cases using the act grew by 6%, from 327 in the 12 months ...
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MoJ announces new ministerial briefs
The Ministry of Justice has revealed the roles of its new ministerial team headed by justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, with the legal aid brief handed to former City lawyer Jonathan Djanogly. Tom McNally, minister of state and deputy leader of the House of Lords, will have ...
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APIL criticises government for dropping damages bill
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has criticised the new government for dropping a bill to implement damages reform. The draft Civil Law Reform Bill, which included proposed changes to the law of damages, was absent from the Queen’s speech on Tuesday. APIL said that ...
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LSC could face judicial review of 'unfair’ family tender process
The Legal Services Commission could face a judicial review of the process and selection criteria used in the recent tender exercise for its new family contract. A family solicitor who did not want to be identified told the Gazette he has got the support of ‘a ...
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‘Big push’ to clear RTA portal backlog
Some personal injury firms handling road traffic accident (RTA) claims are still waiting to be plugged into a new electronic data exchange nearly a month after it launched, due to a backlog of login requests. Introduced as part of Ministry of Justice reforms to speed up ...
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Bar rules delay blamed for low LDP take-up
The delay in the relaxation of rules preventing barristers from entering law firm partnerships has been blamed for the low take-up of the first wave of new legal business structures. According to the latest Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 216 legal disciplinary partnerships were up and running ...