Last 3 months headlines – Page 1448
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Where IT systems are failing
It’s the Legal IT exhibition this week so I write this with some trepidation as I’m about to make a general criticism of a significant area of solicitors business practise. I’ll get my mitigation in first. What I’m about to outline is our experience of ...
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Two solicitors awarded Queen's Counsel status
Just two solicitors were among the 120 Queen’s Counsel appointments announced by the Lord Chancellor today, while three high-profile solicitors were awarded honorary silk. The successful solicitor applicants were David Price, founder of London media law firm David Price Solicitors & Advocates, and Timothy Taylor, litigation ...
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Do lawyers need digital certificates?
The European Commission has been going crazy over the last few weeks issuing consultations on matters relevant to the legal profession, and we are struggling to keep up: ADR, collective redress, Recognition of Professional Qualifications Di
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Judges slam legal aid cuts and lawyers who bring ‘unmeritorious’ claims
Judges have slammed government plans to cut legal aid, but also criticised publicly funded lawyers who bring ‘unmeritorious’ public law claims, and proposed limiting legal aid in judicial review cases. In a response to the government’s consultation on legal aid published last week, the Judges’ Council ...
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Law Society warns against ‘scaremongering’ insurance adverts
The Law Society has warned homeowners not to be taken in by ‘scaremongering’ adverts offering ‘ineffective’ insurance protection against property fraud. The warning follows the publication of title theft protection insurance adverts that Chancery Lane says have been ‘aggressively marketed’ by some insurance companies. ...
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Chancery Lane to launch will writing campaign
The Law Society is launching a campaign to ensure that will writers take formal qualifications before attempting to provide a service to consumers. The campaign, which will warn about the financial and other risks of using unqualified will writers, will include lobbying the Lord Chancellor ...
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The Legal Services Board’s glowing view of ABSs is not realistic
Reading through the Legal Services Board’s draft business plan for 2011/12, I was stuck by the glowing vision it presented of the post-alternative business structure world. It seemed to me to be the type of gushing enthusiasm that you would expect from the government department ...
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Legal recruitment picks up for in-house and banking
The ‘war for talent’ is hotting up in the in-house sector, with companies increasingly entering into a bidding war for candidates, according to recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark. The recruiter’s executive director Lynne Hardman said that recruitment is also picking up in the banking sector and ...
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Hogan Lovells reports profits boost
City firm Hogan Lovells has reported a 10% boost to partner profits in its first set of full-year financial results. The firm, formed by the merger of US firm Hogan & Hartson and City firm Lovells last year, reported average profits per equity partner (PEP) of ...
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Landlord and tenant
Civil procedure - Housing - Local government - Demoted tenancies Manchester City Council v Pinnock (No.2): SC (Lord Phillips (president), Lord Hope (deputy president), Lord Rodger, Walker, Lady Hale, Brown, Lord Mance, Lord Neuberger, Lord Collins (Justices of the ...
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Civil procedure
Costs - Construction disputes - Mediation - Part 36 offers Rolf v De Guerin: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Rix, Elias, Tomlinson): 9 February 2011 The appellant (R) appealed against ...
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Employment
Education - Local government - Addition of parties - Boards of governors Jones v Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Carnwath, Elias, Pitchford): 9 February 2011 ...
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Defining the scope of witness immunity
The rule of witness immunity was set out by Lord Hutton in Darker v Chief Constable of the West Midlands [2001] 1 AC 435, a case which concerned police malpractice. Lord Hutton held: ‘The rule that a party has immunity in respect of what he ...
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Senior judge Lord Phillips learns the hard way after criticising government
Any judge who takes on the government in the court of public opinion is bound to end up second best. That was the lesson that the president of the Supreme Court learned the hard way last week. Sadly, Lord Phillips does not have a public ...
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HM Courts must do more to recoup uncollected fines and penalties
Tory MP Kris Hopkins asked justice minister Jonathan Djanogly a very good question last week: ‘What progress has [your] department made in recouping outstanding financial penalties that remain uncollected by HM Courts Service?' Answer came there none.
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Government's proposals for student immigration based on unreliable stats
by Nichola Carter, partner at Penningtons The government is currently reviewing around 30,000 responses to its consultation on international student migration, which closed on 31 January. It will shortly announce a raft of new policy measures in this area aimed at substantially reducing student immigration and ...
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File blunders spark Legal Services Commission payment chaos
The Legal Services Commission is experiencing ‘significant delays’ in processing payments to firms after administrative blunders affected thousands of criminal case files, the Gazette has learned. Payment problems have occurred in relation to 4,000 files which were not allocated the necessary reference by HM Courts Service ...
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Consumers back 'name and shame' complaints policy
Consumers are generally in favour of ‘naming and shaming’ law firms that are subject to complaints, but would only expect information to be published when a firm has had three complaints upheld against it in 12 months, according to research released today. The findings of a ...
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Bar Professional Training Course students 'not up to it'
Too many people on the Bar Professional Training Course are ‘wasting their money’ because they are ‘not up to it’, the chair of the bar’s regulator declared last week. Lady Deech, chair of the Bar Standards Board, said the BSB would press ahead with its plans to introduce aptitude and ...