Last 3 months headlines – Page 1395
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The English were mute at the international legal aid conference
Every couple of years, legal aid administrators from around the world meet with concerned academics. In June, they gathered in Helsinki.
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Naturalisation
British nationality - Acquisition R (on the application of Chockalingam Thamby) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Sales): 8 July 2011 ...
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PII special: overview - taking cover
In the legal sector - and the insurance market for that matter - the summer of 2010 was a tipping point; a realisation that things had gone too far and action was a necessity. So what was the trigger for this sudden application of the brakes? ...
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Why the SRA replaced the assigned risks pool
Protecting consumers by ensuring effective professional indemnity and compensation fund arrangements is a key objective for the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Currently, financial protection is achieved through a combination of two arrangements: compulsory professional indemnity insurance (PII) and the compensation fund.
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Human rights
Jurisdiction - Extra-territorial jurisdiction Al-Skeini and others v United Kingdom: European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber): 7 July 2011 The European Court of Human Rights held that the applicants’ ...
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Sharon Shoesmith case: accountability and fairness
Power politics can be brutal to those perceived as prejudicial. A former Archbishop of Canterbury found this out to his cost. For in December 1170, Thomas Becket was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral in apparent compliance with the wishes of King Henry II, with whom he had had a series of ...
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Advice for firms that find it harder to get PII cover at the right price
Market conditions have produced something of a ‘perfect storm’ around the October professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals this year.
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Local authority
NHS - Nursing care - Authority seeking to amend care package R (on the application of McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Supreme Court (Lords Walker, Brown, Kerr, Lady Hale, Lord Dyson SJJ): 6 July 2011 ...
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PII special: what law firms need to know to negotiate the 2011 renewal round
The decision to phase out the assigned risks pool (ARP) during the 2011 and 2012 renewals, leading to its abolition in 2013, has added significant anxiety to the already tumultuous market for professional indemnity insurance (PII). This transitional period will see the introduction of joint liability ...
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Anger over £600m in unpaid court fines
The government was accused of ‘economic illiteracy’ this week, as it emerged that the amount owed in outstanding court fines has risen to more than £600m in the past year, while the number of enforcement officers employed to collect them was slashed by 12%. Solicitors expressed ...
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ABSs at risk of criminal ownership, Law Society warns
The Law Society is pressing the Ministry of Justice to make an urgent amendment to the Legal Services Act to prevent non-lawyers with spent criminal convictions from becoming owners of alternative business structures. Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has written to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke urging ...
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Cuts set to delay case reviews, says CCRC
The independent body that played an instrumental role in the acquittals of Barry George and Sion Jenkins (pictured) has warned that further cuts to its budget will cause delays in dealing with cases. In its annual report published this week, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which ...
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Auditors warn MoJ about legal aid reforms
The National Audit Office (pictured) warned the government that its legal aid reforms would threaten the sustainability of law firms before the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill was published. The news comes after the Gazette reported last week that the Legal Services Commission ...
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Domestic violence rules 'boost cost of disputes'
Family lawyers have attacked the government’s plans to deny legal aid to domestic violence victims who accept ‘undertakings’ from an allegedly abusive partner. Responding to a query on the issue from the House of Commons’ Justice Committee, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that undertakings given during ...