Last 3 months headlines – Page 1213
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The gong show 2013
Twenty years after John Major sought to open up the honours system by introducing ‘people’s honours’, the twice-yearly hand-out of gongs is as predictable as ever. Look at the new year crop, especially when it comes to the legal world.
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Ombudsman sets out new fees plan
A tougher approach to ‘free’ investigations will allow the Legal Ombudsman to raise an extra £1.6m through case fees in 2013/14, the ombudsman’s office revealed today. In the coming financial year the ombudsman will charge firms for their first case rather than allow two free ...
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Judicial review: the wrong steps for the wrong reasons
by James Packer, a director at Duncan Lewis It is annoying for the government to be told that its actions are unlawful. It is embarrassing for the Home Office to have the disarray in the immigration system exposed in court.
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Minister signals weekend courts U-turn
The government has indicated that it will drop plans to open courts at weekends, instead introducing longer weekday sittings. It also plans to achieve ‘colossal savings’ by expanding the use of video links between courts, police stations and prisons, and to continue its restorative justice and ...
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11% of firms still lack compliance officers
Nominated staff at more than 8,800 firms this week took up their new roles as compliance officers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed that individuals at 89% of firms were approved to start work as watchdogs for legal practice, and finance and administration, known as COLPs and ...
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First day back
One morning during the holiday I popped into the office when the building was well and truly closed. The telephone was ringing and I answered it to give a mouthful to the caller about lawyers needing holidays as well, but it was only a person wishing the firm a happy ...
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RTA Portal: no plan B as government postpones expansion
The government has refused to reveal an alternative date for extending the RTA Portal scheme after announcing a postponement of its 1 April target today. As the Gazette reported before Christmas, the plan to extend the scheme to handle claims up to £25,000, as well ...
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Video to come to 13 more court areas in 2013
Video-link technology will be extended to more than a dozen court areas during the coming year, the justice minister announced today. Thirteen areas, including Avon and Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Devon and Cornwall, will start using live links in 2013 to allow police ...
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Allen & Overy’s Wootton leads thin line-up of solicitor honours
David Wootton, partner of magic circle firm Allen & Overy - and last year’s Lord Mayor of London - is one of only a handful of solicitors to feature in the 2013 New Year honours list. Corporate finance specialist Wootton, who was admitted in 1975, receives a knighthood ‘for services ...
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Government backs apprenticeship route to law
Apprenticeships equivalent to BA and MA degrees will soon be available as a route in to the law, the government announced today. In a statement strongly backing professional apprenticeships, Matthew Hancock, the skills minister, said there is no reason why aspiring lawyers cannot attain the ...
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Compliments of the season to all our readers
Thank you for visiting our website in 2012. The Law Society Gazette is now taking a break until 2 January, when our daily newsletter will resume publication: if you have not yet subscribed, please do so via the link to the right. Our next print ...
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Dispute numbers decline as crash impact fades
New research shows that the number of commercial and civil disputes resolved in the UK through arbitration, mediation and adjudication fell sharply as the impact of the 2008 crash abated. The total fell from 27,110 in 2009 to 21,260 in 2011, according to figures contained ...
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RTA Portal software may not be ready for deadline
The company running the expanded claims portal today admitted a significant setback in meeting the government’s April deadline for handling new types of claims. In a statement, RTA Portal Co revealed it will have to build the software for the extended system on the basis of ...
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Quality and compliance – it’s all the same, isn’t it?
Well, no... If you have achieved and maintained a quality standard such as ISO and Lexcel that’s great, but both of these are management standards which enable you to document your processes and procedures and then monitor their effectiveness. Unless your standard has been specifically adapted to deal with ...
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What connects us: can the answer be human rights?
A rising tide of prosperity that floats all boats is no longer the glue that can hold our society together. Whatever the consensus was in the boom years around the greater good that could be derived from economic growth driven by personal atavism, to make the same argument at the ...
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New model pioneers win ABS status
Two of the highest-profile flagbearers for new models of legal service ownership have won approval as alternative business structures. Knights Solicitors, owned by James Caan’s private equity vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw, and stock exchange-listed personal injury company Quindell Portfolio were both confirmed as ABSs by the Solicitors ...
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Trainee retention figures hold up
Leading firms in England and Wales retained 79% of their trainees once they had qualified in 2012, new figures reveal. The Chambers Student guide surveyed 123 mostly commercial firms and found that 2,074 out of 2,620 trainees remained at their first firm. ...
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Hunting in the dock
The latest friends of the prime minister to have found themselves in the criminal dock are members of the Heythrop Hunt. This is Cameron’s local hunt in Oxfordshire, with which he rode half a dozen times before the Hunting Act in February 2005 made hunting with dogs unlawful. ...
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SRA admits disappointment at COLP and COFA figures
Several hundred firms face having their authorisation revoked for failing to appoint acceptable compliance officers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today. In its first formal statement of disappointment at the profession’s response to the requirement to appoint compliance officers for legal practice and for finance ...