Last 3 months headlines – Page 1583
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Judgement call
I write in response to the letter from Shamil Purohit (7 January) headed ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’.
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Martial law
In response to Christopher Digby-Bell’s letter of 7 January, I quote field marshal von Moltke: ‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.’ Michael Timms, M R Timms & Company, Dudley
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Supply and demands
Your editorial ‘Future in the balance’ (7 January) told us nothing new. There has always been an imbalance between those wanting to enter the profession and those for whom there is an opening.
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Jackson LJ on civil litigation costs – your views
I believe Lord Justice Jackson’s emphasis on before-the-event (BTE), and the removal of after-the-event and adverse success fees, is linked to the onset of the Legal Services Act (LSA) and the introduction of alternative business structures.
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How can we help make more commercially minded lawyers?
As a non-lawyer (I refuse to use the terms fee-earner and non fee-earner, or 'fee-burner' as I heard it called recently), I find it frustrating that many lawyers lack commercial awareness, that is the ability and desire to really talk to clients...
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What is the real motive behind defamation costs reform?
Lord Justice Jackson published his review on civil costs on 14 January, recommending the abolition of success fees and after-the-event insurance in all civil cases where conditional fee agreements (CFAs) were used.
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Straw to crack down on lawyers’ defamation fees
The Ministry of Justice has launched a four-week consultation proposing an ‘urgent’ interim measure to limit the success fees that can be claimed by lawyers in defamation cases. The consultation paper proposes limiting the uplift charged by lawyers for winning defamation cases taken on under conditional ...
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In two minds about schizophrenia?
Our society has an ambivalent attitude to schizophrenia, as a cursory search of the news for the first half of January 2010 makes abundantly clear.
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Tax lawyers report rise in tribunal appeals work
Tax litigation lawyers have seen a 14% increase in tribunal cases as a result of more aggressive tax collection by HM Revenue & Customs. A report by accountants UHY Hacker Young found that tax tribunals cases grew from 4,311 in 2007 to 4,897 in 2008, with ...
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Echoing Lord Justice Jackson on alternative dispute resolution
Here is one of the big issues facing the EU: how do you successfully communicate laws and policies to more than 500 million citizens in 23 official languages?
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MPs warn of criminal justice 'crisis'
A committee of MPs has warned that the criminal justice system is ‘facing a crisis of sustainability’ as government spending on prisons takes resources away from other aspects of criminal justice. The Justice Committee said the government should make ‘radical moves’ to shift resources away from ...
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YouGov survey sheds light on professional services
With an hour to kill at the dentist on Monday, with my son in the hot seat, I took along a little light reading – the recent YouGov survey results published on behalf of the Legal Services Board.
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Criminal law – extending the jurisdiction of the magistrates’ courts
For hearings on or after 30 September 2009, significant amendments have been made to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 by section 17 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
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Criminal procedure
Bail – Credit for time served – Electric monitoring – Sentencing R v Rudie Aaron Monaghan: R v Robert Douglas Tyler: R v Chay Gilbert: R v Asim Naser: R v Aquib Khan: R v Ben Chapman: CA ...
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Let our dialogue begin - the SRA seeks new partnership with the profession
As the new chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute a regular column to the Gazette. There are many challenges ahead, which I will discuss fully in subsequent editions.
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Barings' global general counsel on dispelling myths and rising to the top
Sandie Okoro, global general counsel at Barings, grew up in Balham, south-west London, and by the age of nine she knew she wanted to be a lawyer. ‘I watched Crown Court on television,’ she says, referring to the ITV courtroom drama that ran from 1972 to 1984 and starred John ...
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Secret profit
I would once have been astonished to read that we are now allowed to add a mark-up to counsel’s fees (see [2009] Gazette, 17 December, 2). Sadly, it is a sign of the times. This appears to be yet another example of professional standards being undermined by commercial expediency.
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This year’s model
Adam Makepeace of Duncan Lewis & Co makes some pertinent points with regard to the large-scale provision of civil legal aid work (see [2009] Gazette, 10 December, 12). However, his conclusion that the choice of a model other than that used by his firm for the provision of civil legal ...