Last 3 months headlines – Page 1568
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Family solicitors report rise in 'collaborative prenups’
Family solicitors have reported a rise in the number of clients asking for prenuptial agreements to be prepared using the collaborative law model. Suzanne Kingston, a partner at London firm Dawsons, said about 50% of the pre- and postnuptial agreements she completed last year were done ...
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LSC announces dates for civil legal aid tenders, but concerns remain
The Legal Services Commission has announced the revised dates that tendering for the new civil contracts for legal aid work will open, but the Law Society has warned that problems must still be addressed before the tenders begin. Bid rounds for social welfare law and ...
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Solicitor comparison wesite for legal fees
A new solicitor comparison website will allow consumers to compare law firm fees for the first time, the Gazette can reveal. CompareLegalSolutions.com, to be launched in March, claims it will allow consumers to compare firms on price across 90 areas of law.
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SRA poised to relax conflict of interest rules
Law firms will be able to advise rival clients on the same deal after the Solicitors Regulation Authority laid down plans to relax conflict of interest and confidentiality rules in a shortened consultation which will close next month. The proposed rule changes being pushed through by ...
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Judgement call
I write in response to the letter from Shamil Purohit (7 January) headed ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’.
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Martial law
In response to Christopher Digby-Bell’s letter of 7 January, I quote field marshal von Moltke: ‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.’ Michael Timms, M R Timms & Company, Dudley
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Supply and demands
Your editorial ‘Future in the balance’ (7 January) told us nothing new. There has always been an imbalance between those wanting to enter the profession and those for whom there is an opening.
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Jackson LJ on civil litigation costs – your views
I believe Lord Justice Jackson’s emphasis on before-the-event (BTE), and the removal of after-the-event and adverse success fees, is linked to the onset of the Legal Services Act (LSA) and the introduction of alternative business structures.
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How can we help make more commercially minded lawyers?
As a non-lawyer (I refuse to use the terms fee-earner and non fee-earner, or 'fee-burner' as I heard it called recently), I find it frustrating that many lawyers lack commercial awareness, that is the ability and desire to really talk to clients...
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What is the real motive behind defamation costs reform?
Lord Justice Jackson published his review on civil costs on 14 January, recommending the abolition of success fees and after-the-event insurance in all civil cases where conditional fee agreements (CFAs) were used.
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Straw to crack down on lawyers’ defamation fees
The Ministry of Justice has launched a four-week consultation proposing an ‘urgent’ interim measure to limit the success fees that can be claimed by lawyers in defamation cases. The consultation paper proposes limiting the uplift charged by lawyers for winning defamation cases taken on under conditional ...
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In two minds about schizophrenia?
Our society has an ambivalent attitude to schizophrenia, as a cursory search of the news for the first half of January 2010 makes abundantly clear.
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Tax lawyers report rise in tribunal appeals work
Tax litigation lawyers have seen a 14% increase in tribunal cases as a result of more aggressive tax collection by HM Revenue & Customs. A report by accountants UHY Hacker Young found that tax tribunals cases grew from 4,311 in 2007 to 4,897 in 2008, with ...
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Echoing Lord Justice Jackson on alternative dispute resolution
Here is one of the big issues facing the EU: how do you successfully communicate laws and policies to more than 500 million citizens in 23 official languages?
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MPs warn of criminal justice 'crisis'
A committee of MPs has warned that the criminal justice system is ‘facing a crisis of sustainability’ as government spending on prisons takes resources away from other aspects of criminal justice. The Justice Committee said the government should make ‘radical moves’ to shift resources away from ...
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YouGov survey sheds light on professional services
With an hour to kill at the dentist on Monday, with my son in the hot seat, I took along a little light reading – the recent YouGov survey results published on behalf of the Legal Services Board.
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Criminal law – extending the jurisdiction of the magistrates’ courts
For hearings on or after 30 September 2009, significant amendments have been made to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 by section 17 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
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Criminal procedure
Bail – Credit for time served – Electric monitoring – Sentencing R v Rudie Aaron Monaghan: R v Robert Douglas Tyler: R v Chay Gilbert: R v Asim Naser: R v Aquib Khan: R v Ben Chapman: CA ...