Last 3 months headlines – Page 1538
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Bar sets out guidance on how chambers can compete with solicitors
The Bar Council has published guidance to chambers on setting up a new business model that will enable barristers to bid for work in competition with solicitors. The new concept, dubbed ProcureCo, is a separate corporate vehicle that can be formed as an adjunct to ...
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Pro rata practising certificate plea for part-timers
Solicitors who work part-time should pay a reduced, prorated practising certificate fee, the Association of Women Solicitors has said. Under the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposals for reform of the way the practising certificate is charged, a flat fee of around £510 will be payable per individual ...
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General counsel ‘bypass law firms’ and go directly to the bar
General counsel are increasingly bypassing law firms to go directly to the bar for legal advice, according to a report published today. A study by research company Winmark found that while commercial law firms are banking on an increase in corporate legal spend to boost their ...
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Time for solicitors to reinvent their customer services
In a rapidly changing market it can often help to look at other businesses and economies for an indication of how things might develop.
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Employment Appeal Tribunal issues TUPE judgment on contract wins
The first case to reach the Employment Appeal Tribunal concerning a dispute between two law firms over the employment law implications of winning a client contract from another firm has provided ‘much-needed clarification’ on the issue, experts have said. The EAT upheld an earlier tribunal decision ...
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Advocate general advises against privilege for in-house lawyers
In-house lawyers in Europe should not have the same right to legal professional privilege as other lawyers, the advocate general in the long-running Akzo Nobel case said this morning. Giving her opinion on the case, which precedes the final decision of the European Court of Justice ...
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Could mediation be the answer to a hung parliament?
Proponents and practitioners of mediation often have an evangelical belief in its ability to bring about resolution to even the most intractable disputes.
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Legal Services Commission delays outcome of mental health tender
The Legal Services Commission has delayed the announcement of the outcome of the mental health tender. It said: ‘Following the election we will need to discuss the outcome of the tender process with any new ministers, and it is likely that notification to applicants will take ...
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A five-year Action Plan for justice in the EU
The UK has been going through waves of Cleggmania, but has largely ignored the EU as it undergoes the process of how it will be governed for the next five years. Now the EU has published its own plans for the next five years in the justice sector.
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Jackson report: litigation processes and their impact on costs
Much has already been said about Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for success fees, after-the-event insurance, costs shifting and the like, but much less, if anything, about litigation processes, and their impact on costs. Yet it is surely unarguable that a streamlining or simplification of the litigation process would result in ...
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Nationwide removes 300 firms from its conveyancing panel
Nationwide Group has shed around 300 firms from its conveyancing panel in what is understood to be a ‘risk-based review’. The Law Society has immediately entered into discussions with the lender. The group covers mortgages provided by Nationwide; the Mortgage Works; ...
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Surge in new laws sparked by recession, research reveals
Some 98% of new laws introduced by the government in 2009 were brought in as statutory instruments without full parliamentary debate, research has revealed today. Data from legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell showed that the number of laws introduced by the government during the last ...
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A furore over the sex offenders register
An 11-year-old boy who raped a six-year-old girl should have been given the death penalty. Or perhaps just branded with a hot iron and put on the sex offenders register for life.
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Malaysian Human Rights Commission criticises treatment of lawyers
The Law Society has welcomed a report by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission published today which finds that the arrest of five legal aid lawyers last year was unlawful. The lawyers were called to the police station to represent clients who had been arrested for attending ...
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Media: British Chiropractic Association v Dr Simon Singh
While the northern hemisphere is paralysed by the seismic shift that has caused the Icelandic volcano, Mt Eyjafjallajökull, to erupt, the case of the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) against Dr Simon Singh promises to have an equally seismic effect on the legal landscape of libel in the UK and the ...
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Family law
Cafcass – Children – Contract orders – Removal from jurisdiction Re D (a child): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Wall, Aikens): 8 April 2010 The appellant father (F) appealed ...
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Civil procedure
Employment – Transport – Balance of convenience – Industrial action Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers: QBD (Mrs Justice Sharp): 1 April 2010 ...
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No pain no gain
There is such a thing as a glutton for punishment, and it seems that is what the Legal Services Commission must be.
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The sour smell of failure
As prosecutors and defence lawyers know only too well, criminals can be pretty, well, gormless is the word – or the ones who get caught can be, at any rate. Obiter has spotted a wealth of stories about foolish offenders recently. There was 68-year-old John Maurice, who was sentenced last ...