Last 3 months headlines – Page 1470
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PII reforms a ‘disaster’ for high street
Plans for reform of the professional indemnity insurance rules could ‘hand control of the conveyancing market to lenders and insurers’, solicitors have been warned. Former Law Society president Paul Marsh, an industry specialist, said the proposals are ‘potentially a disaster’ for high street conveyancers.
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LSC under fire over spending
The Legal Services Commission’s ‘unlawful’ family tender cost around £1m, its legal director told the House of Commons justice committee last week. The LSC also came under fire from MPs over senior executives’ pay, after its recently published accounts showed that former chief executive Carolyn Regan ...
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Family lawyers offered ADR fee
Legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly has proposed that family solicitors should receive £150 to provide legal help to clients who engage in mediation, to demonstrate the government’s commitment to alternative dispute resolution. Speaking at the National Family Mediation conference last week, Djanogly (pictured) announced that where ...
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Libel defence broadened to reflect internet age
The first libel case to be appealed to the Supreme Court has seen a defence dating back to Victorian times broadened to meet the needs of the internet age. In Spiller v Joseph, Lord Phillips said the defence of ‘fair comment’, which places a burden on ...
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Solicitors miss out on judicial posts
Two women and two ethnic minority lawyers were among the 13 candidates recommended for appointment to the High Court in the most recent selection round, the Judicial Appointments Commission has said. The JAC said the appointments would increase ethnic minority representation in the court to ...
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Lawyer denies ‘£1.4m theft’
A Leeds solicitor and his wife stole £1.4m from the firm where they both worked to fund a luxury lifestyle, a jury at Leeds Crown Court heard last week. Simon Morgan, 50, who was senior partner at Milners in Leeds, and his wife Ann Young-Morgan, 55, ...
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Out of court disposals warning
Too many cases are being dealt with by out of court disposals where the police are acting as prosecutor and judge, a Court of Appeal judge said last week. Giving the Roscoe lecture on criminal justice, Lord Justice Leveson pointed out that 450,000 cases were dealt ...
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Family law
Administration of justice – Ancillary relief – Anonymity – Conspiracy Sally Ann Lykiardopulo (appellant) v Panaghis Nicholas Fotis Lykiardopulo (respondent) and Michael Lykiardopulo (interested party): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Thorpe, Stanley Burnton, Tomlinson): ...
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Legal profession
Administrative law – Bias – Conflict of interest – Disciplinary tribunals R (on the application of Kaur) v Institute of Legal Executives Appeal Tribunal: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Foskett): 23 November 2010 ...
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Immigration
Administration of justice – Human rights – Asylum and immigration tribunal MA (Somalia) (respondent) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (appellant): SC (Lords Phillips (president), Walker, Mance, Sir John Dyson, Lady Hale): ...
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Mystery shoppers to test will-writers
Mystery shoppers will test the service provided by will-writers early next year, as part of a Legal Services Board project. Research agency IFF Research has been commissioned by the LSB, the Legal Services Consumer Panel and the Office of Fair Trading to recruit individuals to report ...
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Government proposes 50% sentence cut for guilty pleas
Defendants who plead guilty at the earliest stage could receive a 50% reduction in their sentence, under government proposals outlined today in a green paper on the sentencing and rehabilitation of offenders. The plan is designed to tackle the problem that the paper calls ‘one of ...
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Academics warn against restricting qualifying law degrees
Proposals to tighten the regulation of collaborative arrangements between law schools in the UK and overseas are ‘unfortunate’ in an increasingly global market, and will encourage box-ticking rather than an evaluative approach, academics have warned. Collaborative arrangements for Qualifying Law Degrees (QLD) allow the delivery of ...
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Why are insurers still dissatisfied with PII reform?
It strikes me as odd that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) isn’t happy with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s professional indemnity insurance (PII) reform proposals. If implemented, insurance companies will be getting many of the concessions they’ve been after for years. The ABI says that the ...
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Corporate social responsibility and community engagement
Some while ago I attended a meeting addressed by a Pro Bono officer. We were advised that the government would be pleased to think that the profession had demonstrated its community spirit by making good the shortcomings in legal aid provision by offering services free of charge through a pro ...
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Firms tighten spending on support staff and training
Law firms are controlling costs in the economic downturn by increasing the ratio of fee-earners to support staff and by spending less on learning and development, a survey has revealed. The survey of 47 medium to large firms by management and human resources consultancy Agenda Consulting ...
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Recent cases of ‘voluntary erasure’ raise important issues
Should a doctor who is the subject of a current fitness to practise complaint before the General Medical Council (GMC) be permitted to retire from the medical register on the grounds of ill health, and thereby avoid a public fitness to practise hearing?
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Conveyancing under spotlight as SRA unveils sweeping PII reforms
The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped from 1 October next year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has recommended in a consultation on client financial protection, published today. The regulator simultaneously announced that it will begin investigating failures in the conveyancing process early next year, and ...
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Divorce, patents and crime
Our little local difficulties in Europe do not mean that work is not continuing on the many substantive changes that are taking place at European level in the justice area. How to keep up with them all? (Read this, that’s how …)
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Time to review the discount rate in personal injury claims
When assessing future pecuniary loss in personal injury claims, the multiplicand/multiplier approach is often adopted. An important factor in determining multipliers is the net rate of return (discount rate) the claimant might expect to receive from a reasonably prudent investment of the lump sum compensation.