Last 3 months headlines – Page 1515
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MoJ axes training grants for legal aid
The Ministry of Justice has axed a grant scheme that helped fund the training of the next generation of legal aid solicitors because there are ‘too many lawyers’ conducting legal aid work. Legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly said the government would save £2.6m a year by ...
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Circuit judge resigns over male prostitute allegations
A circuit judge has resigned after losing an appeal against a decision to remove him from office following allegations over his private life. Gerald Price QC, a judge on the Wales circuit, was the subject of media reports that he had had a relationship with a ...
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Barristers seek partnership with solicitors
Some 43% of barristers would like to go into business with solicitors, research commissioned by bar regulator the Bar Standards Board has shown today. A YouGov survey of nearly 2,000 barristers and 141 clerks and practice managers revealed that 43% said they would be interested in ...
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What are the government’s real plans for the financial regulators?
After the big bang, the silence. George Osborne may have wowed the City with his promise to smash the Financial Services Authority (FSA) at Mansion House a couple of weeks ago, but what on earth have we leant since then about our new financial regulators?
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Scrapping HIPs has little impact on property market
The scrapping of home information packs (HIPs) has had only a ‘marginal’ impact on the beleaguered property market, solicitors said this week, as they predicted that the market will remain slow for the rest of the year. Communities secretary Eric Pickles, who axed the controversial sellers’ ...
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MoJ to publish draft Defamation Bill
The Ministry of Justice has announced it will publish a draft Defamation Bill for consultation in the new year, with a view to introducing a bill in the next parliamentary session. Justice minister Lord McNally outlined the government’s plans to review the law on defamation to ...
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Is social networking really appropriate for lawyers?
Here are some of the typical comments we hear as we talk to lawyers and their in-house marketing teams: I’m not sure about all this hype around social media. I'm not sure if social networking has any relevance to a law firm. I can see that more and more business ...
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Annual immigration cap could harm legal sector
Government plans to impose a permanent annual cap on non-EU nationals entering the UK labour market could have a ‘significant detrimental impact’ on the legal sector, the Law Society has warned. Home secretary Theresa May has announced a consultation process ahead of a permanent annual cap ...
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Outcomes-focused regulation: what your firm needs to build
The SRA has now completed the first stage of its programme of roadshows leading to the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation and alternative business structures in October 2011. The launch in London on 25 May was followed by well-attended events in Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Exeter, Cambridge, Newcastle, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
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Europe's most prominent guardians of human rights
Step into the entrance foyer of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg and you could be in a sports centre in Milton Keynes on a quiet morning. The glass, tubular steel and spiral staircases lack gravitas. There are no gowned briefs or clients in evidence. The place ...
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Civil Procedure Rules 2009 - update
The second set of amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) for 2009 were contained within the Civil Procedure (Amendment No2) Rules 2009 (SI 2009/3390) and the much longer update 51 which effected changes to the CPR Practice Directions. Unless otherwise stated, the changes were effective from 6 April 2010. ...
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A place for sharia
I work in an area where there is a large Muslim population. I think that sharia law may, in some circumstances, have a role to play, providing: all the parties agree; there is no attempt to replace English law with sharia law; and representatives are given a seat at the ...
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Truth about CFAs
I was interested to see from your piece last week, ‘Urgent action’ demanded on CFA ‘scandal’ (see news), that Steven Heffer had written to the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke QC on behalf of Lawyers for Media Standards to voice its concerns about the proposal to reduce the maximum success fee ...
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Too old for the legal profession?
After selling my practice a few years ago I elected to work nine months a year on locum assignments and consultancy work for solicitors buying, selling or merging their firms. All went brilliantly for two years. Then the recession came and work dried up. Two years ...
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Matters of fact about recent mental health tender
Recent negative comments in the Gazette about the results of the Legal Services Commission’s mental health tender ignore a number of key points. The tender process itself was a success. The LSC actually allocated 1,500 more new matter starts than in 2009/10, and the allocations we ...
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Does the UK need a comprehensive constitutional framework?
This week’s announcement of a referendum on whether MPs should be elected under the alternative vote system is the latest example of Britain’s piecemeal approach to constitutional reform. Surely we should step back and take a broader view of how we govern the UK?
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Surprise appointments
Many lawyers shared the surprise of Conservative MPs Dominic Grieve and Henry Bellingham when David Cameron gave neither a position in the Ministry of Justice in May. The legal profession had spent the last 12 months schmoozing the pair, who were widely expected to become justice secretary and legal aid ...
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Pad on the back
Anyone played with an iPad yet? Obiter had one thrust into his palms by a beaming chum only last week, but embarrassingly mistook it for an oversized iPhone (‘Where’s the earpiece’ rather gave the game away).
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Jockeying for position
What with the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France, cricket and the Open golf, watching sports could become a full-time occupation. But one lawyer in the equine team at northern firm Langleys has gone a step further than being just an armchair spectator. Private client assistant Serena Brotherton ...
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Marching with pride
Lawyers were out in force last weekend for the Pride 2010 parade in central London celebrating ‘equality under the law’. Some 120 solicitors, barristers and legal executives braved the heat to join the lawyers’ contingent, which saw the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Junior Lawyers Division, the Lesbian and ...