Last 3 months headlines – Page 1705
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Banking and finance
Hospitality and leisure – Credit – Debts – Dishonour of cheques – Gambling Aspinall’s Club Ltd v Fouad Al-Zayat: QBD (Comm) (Mr Justice Teare): 3 September 2008. The claimant ...
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PEP talks and hard lessons
Will the City learn from the recession of the early 1990s? These troubled economic times spell danger for big City firms in more ways than one. Clearly there are short-term difficulties in certain sectors – most notably property – and rarely a day goes by now ...
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A question of priorities
Government plans to slash the courts service budget will have a damaging effect on the public’s access to justice. Black holes in space are a scientific fact, but black holes in public sector budgets are often a matter of dispute. This is the case with the ...
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Calm after the storm?
Turbo-capitalism has hit the wall and City firms are already feeling the pain. But it could have been a lot worse, as lawyers seek to advise those affected by the market turmoil. It’s an ill wind and all that. As City law firms try to catch ...
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Market chaos sparks client money fears
The security of billions of pounds of client money held in UK banks was called into question this week following the apparent near-collapse of HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender. Law firms across the UK reported being inundated with calls from clients worried that cash pooled in ...
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Forty per cent of conveyancing firms lay off staff
Four out of ten conveyancing firms have cut staff numbers because of the fall in home sales, according to a survey by search provider Searchflow published this week. The poll, seen exclusively by the Gazette, revealed that 40% of firms have cut their headcount in response ...
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Investigation into lawyer assassinations
Colombia is setting up a special prosecution team dedicated to investigating the assassination of human rights lawyers following talks between government officials and a delegation of high-profile UK legal professionals.
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AIG bailout wards off PII catastrophe
The US Government’s $85bn (£48bn) bailout of insurer AIG has averted a catastrophe in the volatile solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market, brokers have said. However, some reported that a minority of clients remained wary of obtaining AIG cover, and that the period between AIG’s share ...
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EU evidence exchange warning
The free exchange of forensic evidence across European Union (EU) member states could result in miscarriages of justice unless defence lawyers are properly trained to challenge expert evidence from different jurisdictions, a conference in London heard this week.
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NHS negligence cover comes under scrutiny
Pressure is mounting on the government to explain the relationship between the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), which pays compensation to victims of clinical negligence, and after-the-event (ATE) insurer FirstAssist. In a letter to health secretary Alan Johnson and justice secretary Jack Straw – seen by the ...
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Will writers attack comparison site
Will writers have reacted with alarm to plans by a price-comparison website to enter the legal services market. The Society of Will Writers this week warned that an online match-making service offered by the Paaleads.com venture could be ‘devastating to the professionalism’ of the industry. In ...
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Met safety deposit box raid slammed
A solicitor representing owners of safety deposit boxes raided by police has spoken out against what he says is excessive use of powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Lawrence Kelly, of London solicitors Lawrence Stephens, claimed the authorities are using warrants to trawl ...
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Disability on firms' radar
A national charity has launched an action plan to help law students with disabilities overcome barriers to pursuing a legal career such as going to the ‘wrong sort of university’. Some 21,350 first-year undergraduates declared a disability in 2007, with law students making up 12% ...
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Death row execution 'inhuman'
The execution of the US’s longest-serving death row prisoner, Jack Alderman, has been condemned as cruel and inhumane by those who fought to overturn the sentence. As the Gazette went to press last week, a court granted a last-minute stay of execution for Alderman, who had ...
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Free for ale
With its pale, smooth straw colour born from marris otter, lager and crystal malts, malted wheats and citrus hops, Davenports IPA original bitter sounds like an ale-enthusiast’s dream. But those already diving out of the door and heading to the Dog and Duck should stay put, because Walsall firm Enoch ...
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Launching into orbiter
Obiter is used to being quizzed about which planet it inhabits, but it’s not often mistaken for a spacecraft. Until this week, when a letter arrived at Chancery Lane addressed to ‘Orbiter’. Even better, the letter was from a member of the profession ...
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Going green as the clouds gather
Environmental sustainability is no longer a luxury but rather a business-critical issue for law firms, argues Des Hudson. With the Met Office warning that this September could be the wettest ever, the urgent warnings of climate change scientists seem to be thrown into ever sharper relief. ...
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Training must top the agenda
Newly qualified solicitors should not use clients as guinea pigs to gain advocacy experience. I was pleased to read that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backtracked over plans for automatic rights of audience for solicitors (see [2008] Gazette, 11 September, 2). ...