Last 3 months headlines – Page 1628
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Key Business Finance to pay back money to solicitors’ firms
Solicitors owed thousands of pounds by Key Business Finance (KBF), the legal lender that collapsed last year, will be paid back most of what they are owed. Some 66 law firms made advance payments to KBF totalling £460,000 just before it collapsed. KBF’s administrators Ernst ...
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The new Supreme Court is opening soon
The new Supreme Court (pictured) is to open for business on 1 October, justice secretary Jack Straw announced last week. The court, which will be based at the refurbished Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, will replace the jurisdiction of the House of Lords.It has cost nearly £60m to create and running ...
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Out-of-work lawyers lured by global volunteer projects
Out-of-work solicitors are turning to international volunteer projects to keep their hand in during the recession, according to a leading development charity. Challenges Worldwide, which recruits and trains volunteers with professional skills to work with partners in developing countries, has seen an upward trend in the ...
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Government gives ‘diluted’ go-ahead for class actions
The government gave a qualified go-ahead to class actions this week. In its response to a report by the Civil Justice Council (CJC) which recommended the introduction of a new collective redress procedure last year, the Ministry of Justice said that class actions could be ...
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Civil Justice Council moves to fix fast-track fees
A move to fix the level of legal fees for all fast-track civil cases will begin this week, the Gazette can reveal. The Civil Justice Council has gathered together 13 representatives from the legal profession and insurance industry, including the Law Society, to start work initially ...
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Halifax launches next step in its expansion into legal services
Halifax has taken the next step in its expansion into legal services by launching an online ‘pay as you go’ legal document production and advice service. Halifax Legal Express offers customers three levels of service: ‘self-serve’ allows them to create one of a range of more ...
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Firms merging for the wrong reasons, study shows
Nearly 60% of small and medium-sized law firms are looking to grow through merger and acquisition, but they risk giving themselves bigger headaches, new research seen exclusively by the Gazette has claimed. The survey of 188 practices by the 360 Legal Group found that 59% have ...
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Solicitors win best-value tendering battle but fears remain over pilots
Solicitors claimed to have ‘won a battle’ with the Legal Services Commission this week, as it announced it is to delay the rollout of best value tendering across the country by three years.
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PC fee to rise by nearly 20%
The Law Society’s Council yesterday ‘reluctantly’ voted to increase the practising certificate (PC) by nearly 20%, though it was stressed that ‘not one penny’ of the rise was attributable to increased spending by Chancery Lane. The PC fee for 2010 will be £1,180, up from £995. ...
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Selling the benefits of LLPs
A painful time is fast approaching for law firms in the shape of professional indemnity insurance renewals, due up in October. Last week we published a supplement on PII insurance for firm partners – if you didn't get one for some reason, go to our Supplements page to download it ...
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Lord Neuberger appointed Master of the Rolls
Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, 61, the youngest of the law lords, is to become Master of the Rolls from 1 October. As head of England and Wales’ civil justice system he will be the second most senior judge. He will succeed Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, who has been appointed a ...
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Working group to examine probate disclosure rules
The President of the Family Division, Mark Potter, is to set up a working group to establish a ‘fair and efficient procedure’ for the publication and disclosure of wills. Sir Mark said the current rules were ‘far from user friendly’ for practitioners and the public ...
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Warning - recession can damage your health
The Grim Reaper, it would appear, has our cards marked and is sharpening his scythe in anticipation. That’s because suicides go up when unemployment goes up, like now, and accidents at work also increase in times of recession, like now.
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Businesses should be liable for employee bribery
Businesses should face strict liability for bribes paid by their employees, the Joint Committee on the Draft Bribery Bill recommended today. Publishing its report on the draft bill, the committee said that liability for bribes should rest with companies and partnerships unless they can prove they ...
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BVT is dead in the water – so why persist with the pilots?
Before the LSC announced its response to the best value tendering consultation last week, we at the Gazette were pretty sure what the story was going to be.
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Profits crash at SJ Berwin
Partner profits at City firm SJ Berwin have plummeted by nearly half, with senior partner Jonathan Blake denouncing his firm’s financial results as ‘disappointing’ and ‘not acceptable’. The firm reported a 49% fall in profits per equity partner (PEP) from £801,000 in 2007/08 to £410,000 in ...
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Public confidence undermined by ‘rush to legislate’
The government’s ‘ad hoc and piecemeal’ attempts at constitutional reform risk further undermining public confidence, a report published today has warned.
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Child overnight detention is an institutional failure that must end
by Dr Peter Green, a forensic medical examiner for the Metropolitan Police Service and as designated doctor for child safeguarding at St George’s Hospital and NHS Wandsworth The improper detention of children in prison was highlighted by a recent Barnardo’s report. But another manifestation of state ...
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Charities are right to recover losses
I was disappointed to read Michael Loveridge’s response to my comments about executors potentially being liable to beneficiaries for losses caused by delay (see [2009] Gazette, 2 July, 10). I hope he will not carry through his suggestion of advising his clients against making charitable bequests.
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Enforcing contact to benefit children, not punish the parents
Do not think that the amendments to the Children Act (CA) relating to contact orders made by the Children and Adoption Act 2006 (the 2006 act), with effect from 8 December 2008, are about punishing parents for failing to comply with contact orders. Rather, the reforms are to ensure that ...