Last 3 months headlines – Page 1554
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Recruitment freezes in local government
Local government legal departments are instigating recruitment freezes ahead of public sector budget cuts, while there has been a surge in demand for legal aid lawyers in immigration, family and criminal work and an upturn in corporate law hires. Colin Loth, manager of the legal teams ...
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Libel success fees limited to 10%
The success fees charged by lawyers in defamation cases will be cut by 90% after justice secretary Jack Straw laid an order to amend the laws on ‘no win, no fee’ agreements. From April the maximum uplift charged by lawyers for winning defamation cases taken on ...
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Why leave it so late to scrap the LSC?
Between them justice secretary Jack Straw and former civil servant Sir Ian Magee hammered the final nail into the coffin of the Legal Services Commission this week.
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Secret filming and the case law that subsequently arises
A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth – Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
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Dispute resolution: recovering costs before allocation
Is a costs judge entitled to take the view that a matter would have been allocated to the small claims track (and therefore requiring the paying party to pay costs on the small claims track basis) where a case is settled before allocation and the consent order provides for costs ...
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Employment
Christianity – Detriment – Religious discrimination – Jewellery Eweida v British Airways Plc: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Sedley, Carnwath, Lady Justice Smith): 12 February 2010 The appellant employee ...
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Immigration
Detention – Foreign nationals – Human rights R (on the application of (1) WL (Congo) (2) KM (Jamaica)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls, Lords Justice Carnwath, ...
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Civil evidence
Banking – Admissibility – Agreements – Estoppel – Settlement Oceanbulk Shipping and Trading SA v TMT Asia Ltd: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Ward, Longmore, Stanley Burnton): 15 February 2010 ...
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Legal profession
Bias – Clerks – Findings – Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Amritpal Singh Virdi (appellant) v Law Society (respondent) and Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (intervener): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Jacob, Lloyd, Stanley Burnton): 16 February 2010 ...
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Law firm CEOs are standing up to be counted in the most difficult market yet
Last year was challenging for law firms to say the least. For the vast majority growth rates fell or stagnated. And redundancies were common, from the magic circle to the high street firms. Clients were more demanding, applying extensive scrutiny in seeking real value for money. Add in regulatory change, ...
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Huw must be joking
Obiter naturally abhors stereotyping, but in the interests of comic art he is willing to perpetuate what retired solicitor Huw James calls a ‘monstrous calumny’. He is referring to the good people of Ceredigion’s alleged tightness with money. ...
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Beg pardon?
Those dictation blunders have had Obiter chuckling once more this week. So many have popped into Obiter’s inbox, it’s a wonder there’s a secretary out there who still has a job.
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Going swimmingly
Well-known mental health and human rights solicitor Lucy Scott-Moncrieff is taking the plunge – again – and all in a good cause. Some of you may recall sponsoring Lucy when she swam the Hellespont in 2008. One of the subtle pleasures of the swim, she says, ...
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Come from a land down under?
‘London Calling to a faraway town,’ The Clash sang, we recall – the town in the present case being down under. The Gazette has received an unusual request from the producers of a new TV show about young Australians living in London. They are looking for an Aussie lawyer to ...
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Memory lane
A 1960s comparison between what solicitors earnt in their careers, against other professions, and why people should choose to enter the legal profession. Law Society’s Gazette, March 1960 ...
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Two assaults on press freedom have been defeated, but will anything change?
To anyone who follows parliamentary affairs, last week must have seemed a good one for the press. Potential threats to free speech melted away, not just once but twice. But I suspect that we are not much better off as a result.
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Delivering justice: The Law Society’s manifesto 2010
In 1835, at the opening of the Law Society’s hall in Chancery Lane, the Society was mandated by the profession to ‘make its complaints by petition, remonstrance and appeal to parliament, the bench and several other constituted authorities’. To this day, a great deal of ...
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The LSC fails to, or does not want to, understand its prime supplier base
by Andrew Caplenchair of the Law Society’s Access to Justice Committee Carolyn Regan, the chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, gave a speech at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum on 9 February entitled ‘60 years of legal aid – next steps for reform’. It was ...
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Developments in RTA claims process and third-party litigation funding
There were significant developments at both ends of the litigation spectrum last week. The three-week delay in launching the new road traffic claims process might not seem much, but it gives law firms some breathing space to get to grips with the reams of new rules (the simpler the system, ...