Last 3 months headlines – Page 1232
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Disappointment at costs council decision
Costs lawyers have expressed disappointment at the government’s decision not to create a costs council as recommended in Lord Justice Jackson’s civil justice reforms. On Monday this week, the Ministry of Justice announced in a written statement that the work of the disbanded Advisory Committee on ...
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Competing with new entrants
The legal market in the UK has been in a state of radical evolution for some time. In these uncertain times, solicitors, particularly those in established local law firms, have the opportunity to compete with the large new entrants and other competitors around them on the level playing field of ...
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Where there is another will
Looking again at Colonel Wintle’s problems over the will drawn by solicitor Nye (30 August), I thought of one from the end of the 19th century when one of the more outrageous frauds was attempted by a Liverpool solicitor, John Hollis Yates. It concerned the estate of Helen Blake, née ...
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Bar needs to rethink on referral fees
Referral fees don’t go away. I’ll probably be writing later about the latest SRA consultation, but my immediate attention’s been caught by the latest guidance on the subject from the Bar Council’s Professional Practices Committee (PPC).
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Leniency for legal whistleblowers
Whistleblowers involved in misconduct will face more lenient penalties under proposals being considered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The regulator today launched a consultation on the introduction of co-operation agreements, under which solicitors who may have been involved in misconduct or failed to report it, but ...
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Grayling promises clampdown on unrecovered legal aid
Wealthy defendants will have their cars seized and sold under a government plan to claw back £10m a year in contributions to legal aid. Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, will today publish a consultation on measures to ensure defendants co-operate with means testing and make ...
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Contracts and access to justice
Crime and sentencing always make the news. So it is not surprising that the shambles surrounding the court interpreters’ contract and its fallout made headlines. What’s worrying is what this and recent county court changes tell us about the approach that might be taken to forthcoming major civil justice reform. ...
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Bar broadside on referral fees ‘confused and self-serving’
The Law Society today rebutted bar claims that solicitors are putting pressure on barristers to enter referral fee arrangements that damage the interests of clients. Chancery Lane accused the Bar Council of ‘confusing the public interest with barristers’ interests’ in new advice to the bar which ...
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Justice on the cheap
The act of stripping out costs and processes occupies a huge acreage of business theory, and was a mainstream preoccupation for senior management even in better economic times. Policymakers, thinktank researchers and civil service fast-streamers all have ‘magpie’ tendencies, and staring at tight and vanishing budgets, one can see why ...
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Applied founder blames ‘intimidation’ for court interpreter debacle
The founder of the company at the centre of the court interpreting debacle today blamed ‘intimidation’ and ‘quite horrendous’ threats by interpreters boycotting his company for its failure to meet targets.
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How safe is your data?
It’s time for firms to tackle the rising wave of cybercrime. Cybercrime is with us and it’s a growth area. The attack suffered by LinkedIn earlier this year, when user details and passwords were made public, shows how even those who use the internet as their place of business, and ...
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ABSs still a minority interest in flat market, says PwC survey
Alternative business structure status remains of interest only to a minority of big firms as a way of building business, according to a long-established annual snapshot. In the Law Firms Survey 2012, compiled by consultancy PwC, 11% of top-100 firms see ABS status as one of ...
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Quotas for women: for or against?
For Twitter followers of the EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, it will be clear what has been on her mind recently. From 5 October until the middle of last week, she had tweeted 17 times. Apart from when she was distracted by the award of the Nobel peace prize to ...
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Citizens Advice can bid for Lottery cash
Citizens Advice bureaux and law centres can bid for a share of £65m promised by the Big Lottery Fund on condition that they prove they can modernise their approach and improve collaboration. Advice providers and community-based organisations will be in contention for the funds if they ...
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Repeat medical errors fuel NHS legal bill
Errors in maternity care that landed the NHS with a £3.1bn legal bill over 10 years are still being repeated, a new report has warned. The study by the NHS Litigation Authority found there were 5,087 maternity claims between 2000 and 2010. It was the most ...
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Council fined for lawyer’s error
A city council has been fined £120,000 after one of its solicitors sent a series of emails relating to a child protection legal case to the wrong address. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found Stoke-on-Trent Council in serious breach of the Data Protection Act after 11 ...
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Detrimental move?
Bradbury v Taylor & Burkinshaw [2012] EWCA Civ 1208 This is a slightly unusual proprietary estoppel case in that it was brought by the alleged promisor, Bill, who sought a declaration that the defendants had no beneficial interest in his house. They counterclaimed for a ...
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Learn from your mistakes
The good ship Legal Ombudsman has been navigating some pretty treacherous waters of late. We have managed to steer past one or two potential rocks – notably the announcement that we will be taking on claims management complaints from next year, and then the publication of the first quarter of ...