Last 3 months headlines – Page 1457
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Regulator presses for steeper fines against ABSs
Alternative business structures (ABSs) must face fines far in excess of the £150m maximum proposed by the Legal Services Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority recommended last week. Responding to an LSB consultation on the issue, the SRA said that ‘the largest commercial entities might require a ...
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How eurozone bailouts affect lawyers
Greek lawyers have been on strike recently, protesting over measures brought in by their government at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund, which is helping to bail out the country’s economy. This is the first sign of a new movement: a retargeting of lawyers’ activities as part of general ...
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LSC and consumer bodies call for complaints publication
The Legal Services Commission is pushing to obtain access to 'detailed information' about successful complaints made against solicitors, which it will use to assess the performance of its providers. Responding to a Legal Services Ombudsman (LeO) consultation of what information it should publish on the complaints ...
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Profits continue to fall at Scottish legal firms
Scotland's solicitors’ profession is becoming increasingly polarised as the downturn continues, new figures show. Smaller firms in Glasgow and Edinburgh are continuing to suffer sharp declines in profitability, but the biggest practices, including cross-border firms, are showing strong signs of recovery. ...
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MoJ confirms delay of Bribery Act
The Bribery Act will not come into force in April, the Ministry of Justice confirmed today. An MoJ spokeswoman said that the ministry is working on implementing guidance ‘to make it practical and comprehensive for business’. Business leaders had criticised the legislation ...
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Replace ARP with three-month ‘grace period’, Law Society says
The assigned risks pool (ARP) should be scrapped and law firms should instead be given a three-month grace period by insurers in which to either find alternative professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover, merge, or close down, the Law Society is to recommend. Outlining the Society’s proposal, ...
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Law Society warns over control orders
The government’s new counter-terrorism measures continue to put at risk the UK’s unrivalled reputation for upholding the principles of freedom and fairness, the Law Society warned this week.
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Mock trials are an aptitude test that works
Policemen have been looking impossibly young to me for years, but now to my horror some barristers look like they have just stepped out of the school playground, too. The defence counsel I was watching had a mop of fair hair, the fringe overhanging his ...
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National Grid slashes legal panel
National Grid has cut the number of law firms it employs on its panel by a quarter, the utilities giant announced today. The company said that it has ‘sought to introduce fixed pricing and other innovative billing solutions wherever possible under the new arrangements, which also ...
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MoJ pledges £29m for victims of crime
The Ministry of Justice has announced that £29.4m will be dedicated to support vulnerable victims of crime over the next three years. The victim and witness voluntary sector will receive £9.8m annually from the MoJ. This will include £3.5m a year to support the work of ...
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Immigration
Compassionate grounds – HIV – Leave to remain – Medical treatment SG (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Rimer, Sullivan): 12 January 2011 ...
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Immigration
Human rights – Asylum – Children’s welfare – Failed asylum seekers R (on the application of (1) Reetha Suppiah (2) Danahar Govindasamy (a child by his litigation friend Reetha Suppiah) (3) Emmanuel Govindasamy (a child by his litigation friend ...
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Administrative law
Discrimination – Employment – Government administration – Department for Business Innovation and Skills R (on the application of Cordant Group Plc) (claimant) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (defendant) and HM Treasury (interested party): QBD (Admin) ...
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Freedom of information: who 'holds' project licences?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) applies to information which is held by a public authority at the time it receives an access request. The First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) recently examined the sometimes difficult question of when information is ‘held’ in ...
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The trials of youth
Obiter was heartened to see the talent on display at a south-east regional heat of the Bar National Mock Trial Competition last week. The trials were conducted in a competitive but civilised fashion by teams of 17-year-olds from local schools.
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Je ne regrette rien
Any lawyers who consider themselves to be hardworking, dedicated types may be concerned to learn that they are in the minority within the profession. That is, if you believe the results of a survey of 500 legal professionals conducted by online jobs board twosteps.com. According to the survey, a quarter ...
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Rough guide
Obiter knows times are tough out there for property lawyers, but did not realise just how bad things have got until this harrowing picture of Robert Camp, commercial property solicitor and joint managing partner at Exeter firm Stephens Scown, arrived at Obiter Towers ...
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Are shared services a panacea for local authority spending cuts?
There is a road in one English town that falls between two boroughs – the boundary between them is an imaginary line down the middle of the road. Each borough has its own waste-management contract. On two different mornings, a truck from each borough goes down its half of the ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, January 1971 Letter to the editor: At least legal jargon is clearer than computer language ...
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There should be no rigid threshold determining a prisoner’s right to vote
Spare a thought for Mark Harper, junior minister at the Cabinet Office who is responsible for political and constitutional reform. A chartered accountant by training, he finds himself responsible for reducing the number of his fellow MPs; for introducing fixed-term parliaments; and for answering the unanswerable West Lothian question. But ...