Last 3 months headlines – Page 1394
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Legal aid firm Law For All in administration
London and regional not-for-profit advice service Law For All went in administration today, the Gazette can confirm. The organisation provides legal services in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond, as well as in East Anglia and the Midlands. Law ...
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MoJ concession on immigration domestic violence cases
Lawyers have welcomed the justice minister’s concession to put some immigration domestic violence cases back within the scope of legal aid. Jonathan Djanogly told the public bill committee that the government would table an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to ...
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Innovation in the profession
Lawyers speak in dramatic, almost biblical terms, of threats currently visited on the profession in England and Wales. Momentous change. The changes in regulation and potential ownership are dramatic and will have a significant impact, not on all firms and practitioners at one time ...
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Supreme Court rules on arbitration
The Supreme Court has ruled that arbitrators are not employees for the purposes of employment equality legislation. Handing down judgment in the case of Hashwani v Jivraj, the court reversed the Court of Appeal’s landmark decision, which held that an arbitration agreement that required all arbitrators ...
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Lay judges agree draft charter for European decision-making
Lay judges from across Europe have agreed a draft charter and a declaration seeking to protect and extend lay involvement in judicial decision-making across the continent. At a meeting of the European Lay Judges Forum held over the weekend, 50 lay judges signed the London Declaration, ...
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Lord Judge announces senior appointments
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge (pictured) has today announced two senior judicial appointments. Lady Justice Hallett has been appointed vice president of the High Court Queen's Bench Division for a period of four years from 3 October 2011. Her appointment follows ...
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Committee to examine Ministry of Justice
The House of Commons’ justice committee is to undertake an inquiry into the structure and budget of the Ministry of Justice and its associated public bodies. The inquiry will focus on the potential contribution of further structural changes to future efficiency savings and improved performance. ...
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Reserved activities come under scrutiny
It’s summertime. But for lawyers, the livin’ ain’t easy (to misquote George Gershwin). Just when it seems that 'one of these mornings, you're going to rise up singing, then you'll spread your wings, and you'll take to the sky' - in other words, go on holiday - word reaches us ...
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Boris Johnson criticises legal aid proposals on domestic violence
The mayor of London has warned that the majority of women who have suffered domestic violence will find it ‘impossible’ to get legal aid to help divorce their abusive partners, because of the ‘restrictive’ evidence required to prove it. In written evidence to the public bill ...
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Did ‘no win, no fee’ topple the News of the World
I don’t suppose too many lawyers will be mourning the demise of the News of the World. It was often the scourge of the legal profession and the much maligned 'no win, no fee' arrangements which, heaven forbid, gave the less well-off a chance of getting ...
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The Co-operative is gearing up to become an ABS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority expressed its disappointment last week that the constraints of the parliamentary timetable mean it will not be able to begin licensing alternative business structures on 6 October, when the final provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007 come into force. But the regulator is not the ...
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LSA changes ‘flying under the radar’ of law firms
Provisions of the Legal Services Act permitting law firms to take on external investment are ‘flying under the radar’ of most small and medium-sized firms, research has suggested. A survey of 75 firms with turnover between £5m and £25m by accountants HW Fisher & Company found ...
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ACS:Law denies involvement in ‘scam’ in Greece
A London solicitor has denied involvement in an email ‘scam’ attempting to get money out of people in Greece by accusing them of illegal filesharing. Emails purporting to be from ACS:Law in London were sent to people in Greece accusing them of illegal filesharing, and seeking ...
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Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper confirm merger
Two of the UK’s leading insurance firms, Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper, today confirmed that they will merge. DAC Beachcroft will have a combined turnover of £175m and will employ more than 2,000 staff in offices across the world. The firms said ...
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200th firm signs diversity and inclusion charter
Carmarthen firm Ungoed-Thomas & King has become the 200th firm to sign up to the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter. One third of private practice solicitors now work in firms that have signed up to the flagship diversity initiative that was launched last year. ...
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Human rights lawyers claim ‘historic’ victory
Human rights lawyers claimed a ‘historic’ victory this month in two landmark rulings in the European Court of Human Rights against the Ministry of Defence. The Strasbourg judges ruled earlier this month that when UK forces are exercising public powers overseas, such as assuming responsibility for ...
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Solicitors from Hell founder ordered to pay £10,000 damages
The founder of the Solicitors from Hell website has been ordered to pay damages of £10,000 after publishing defamatory claims that a solicitor was dishonest. Rick Kordowski’s site published a complaint in March made by Tim Smee about Marlow firm Gabbitas Robins. ...
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SRA to investigate solicitors’ potential role in phone-hacking events
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today launched a formal investigation into the role played by solicitors in events surrounding the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. The SRA's chief executive Antony Townsend said the decision followed a preliminary review of the material in the public domain. ...
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Solicitors do not deserve public humiliation
I received a poor service from my local library the other day. The woman in there was a bit abrupt and sent me to the wrong section as I searched for something to hold up on the Tube to prove how intellectual I was. I declined ...