Last 3 months headlines – Page 1560
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Edwards Duthie wins contract for first London CLAC
East London firm Edwards Duthie has won the contract to run the capital’s first Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC). It will operate the service in Barking and Dagenham in conjunction with the local Citizens Advice Bureau. Over the next three years the ...
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Metropolitan Police revises document charges for civil cases
The Metropolitan Police Service has issued revised charges for providing copies of documentation in civil proceedings. The following most significant changes came into effect on 1 April: Charges for civil cases – statements and interviews ...
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Yorkshire Forward launches two legal panels
Development agency Yorkshire Forward has launched two legal service panels. Nine firms have won a place on the two panels, with contracts that will run for three years, with an option to extend the term for a further 12 months. The ...
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All you need to know about victims of crime in the EU
Since we are entering a general election period, it is timely to speak of a group that will be a focus for pledges and one-upmanship all round: victims of crime. Crime victims are high on the European Commission’s agenda, too. This
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Why is the profession so tough on working mums?
The Association of Women Solicitors’ recent survey confirmed something that those lawyers who work part-time – often, but not exclusively, women with children – already know only too well.
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SRA scraps plans to change conflicts rules
Far-reaching plans to allow law firms to advise rival clients on the same deal have been shelved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority following ‘significant opposition’ from senior in-house lawyers. Relaxed conflict of interest rules were widely expected to be written into the SRA rulebook shortly after ...
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Rules breaches and professional misconduct – where to draw a line?
Time was, not very long ago, when a visitor to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal would be presented with a diet of thefts from client account, serious Accounts Rules breaches, or solicitors who for one reason or another could no longer run their practices. Today, the same visitor might well see ...
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Probate: another disputed will relating to a farm
There seems no end to the flood of disputed wills relating to farms. The most recent is Key v Key [2010] EWHC 408 (Ch).
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Civil procedure
Personal injury – Costs – Fraud – Judgements Martin Raymond Owens v Mark Noble: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Sedley, Elias, Lady Justice Smith): 18 March 2010 The Court ...
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Landlord and tenant
Animals – Housing – Human rights – Nuisance Dee Thomas-Ashley v Drum Housing Association Ltd: CA (Civ Div) (Sir Andrew Morritt (chancellor), Lord Justice Thomas, Sir Scott Baker): 17 March 2010 ...
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Employment
Disciplinary procedures – Doctors – Gross misconduct – Unfair dismissal Sameer Sarkar v West London Mental Health NHS Trust: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Richards, Rimer): 19 March 2010 ...
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Negligence
Child sexual abuse – Clergy – Duty of care – Vicarious liability MAGA (by his litigation friend the Official Solicitor) v Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master ...
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Blundering on
Following last week’s ‘final’ episode of the popular dictation blunders series, soft-hearted old Obiter has caved in to pleas for just one more instalment. Here are a few more amusing leaps of logic made by legal secretaries. Mike Thomson, director at Arnold Thomson in Towcester, Northamptonshire, recalls: ‘Years ago when ...
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Turning a blind eye to EastEnders
Obiter is pleased to note that nobody spotted the frankly shocking error in last week’s issue. It was of course Archie, not Alfie, Mitchell who was murdered by that nasty Stacey Slater. Clearly members of the profession have far better things to do ...
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Memo to self: must do better
A recent review of the Crown Prosecution Service in London rated its standard of performance ‘poor’ in 12 of the 32 London boroughs. So grievous were the failings outlined in the report by HM CPS Inspectorate, that it concluded defendants in the capital were more likely to walk free because ...
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Hour of need
The Gazette reported last week that executive law firm members of environmental group the Legal Sector Alliance all pledged to participate in an ‘Earth hour’ event last weekend, switching off their lights for an hour from 8.30pm on Saturday 27 March. Firms involved include magic circle players Allen & Overy; ...
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Nice little earner, me Lord
Obiter would rather be a judge than a miner, and we have the Latin (as the name suggests). Indeed, to quote the late Peter Cook, we have the Latin for the judgin’ (Oxford and Cambridge A-level, 1987). Sitting in yer nice warm guildhalls ...
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Shamed into action
Joshua Rozenberg’s view that there is ‘nothing to be gained by an arrest of someone who is never going to be prosecuted’ may be good legal analysis but it lacks political sense (see [2010] Gazette, 18 March, 8).
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Prosecution defence
Your story ‘"Justice on the cheap" sparks outcry’ (See [2010] Gazette, 18 March, 1) paints a wholly inaccurate picture of Crown Prosecution Service associate prosecutors (APs).
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Friendly advice
Mark Stephens, of law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said that Davenport Lyons’ methodology for handling illegal file-sharing cases conforms to industry best practice, and has been adopted in the Digital Economy Bill currently going through parliament (See ‘File-sharing "bully tactics"’, [2010] Gazette, 11 March, 4)’.