Last 3 months headlines – Page 1606
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Data page for August 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data complied for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the data page for August 2009 below ...
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Is the legal profession to blame for the fall in social mobility?
When the Cabinet Office issued its call for evidence for an investigation into social mobility and the professions, it was very clear on one point: it did not want any backchat on the impact of an unequal society on social mobility.
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Feeling peaky
It seems Yorkshire’s Three Peaks have been overrun with lawyers recently, with around 70 of them taking part in LawNet’s Three Peaks challenge, which has raised £20,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society. The speediest solicitors were from Overburys in Norwich, with their team racing round in just 8hrs 45mins, though it ...
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Dive talking
A lot of solicitors may feel like jumping out of an aeroplane from time to time, but how many of them actually do it? Well, associate solicitor Ruth Magee (pictured) from Simpson Millar is about to do exactly that – not, we hasten to add, because of despair over the ...
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Peddling rumours
Tassells in Faversham, Kent, has informed us that it has an intrepid explorer in its midst. Partner Ann Matthews is about to cycle through Jordan from Amman to Aqaba, in aid of the Kent Multiple Sclerosis Society. Matthews’ cheeky colleagues have informed us that she has previously been ‘a little ...
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Buzz off
Without doubt the silliest event we learned of this month was Nottinghamshire Law Society’s ‘buzzathon’; a 24-hour drive round and round a circuit in a teeny tiny van called an Ape (pronounced ‘Appey’, apparently). President Stephen Warner and vice-president Deborah Hutchinson took it in turns to drive the little vehicle, ...
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Legal aid lacuna
I am struck by the number of letters that you have published recently from various senior officials from the Legal Services Commission attempting to justify their destruction of the legal aid scheme.
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Virtual support
I read Nicola Laver’s article ‘Virtual firms thrive in the downturn’ (see [2009] Gazette, 23 July, 12) with interest. As a firm we have embraced a hybrid model, which combines physical locations with virtual working. This has helped us grow to be the largest specialist family firm in the country.
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Diversity data
A letter in the last issue of the Gazette questioned why the SRA was sending out a diversity questionnaire to solicitors asking about ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and other key information (see [2009] Gazette, 6 August, 7).
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Cutting out the middle man
The congratulatory report on claims management regulation has once again steered attention away from the rapidly increasing number of claims management companies to issues surrounding regulation of solicitors’ responsibilities (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July, 3).
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Glimmers of hope for conveyancers
The term ‘green shoots’ has become toxic to politicians rash enough to use it and we hesitate to employ it here in the context of the housing market. But embattled conveyancers, still reeling from last year’s ‘annus horribilis’ and the continuation of the malaise into 2009, do at last have ...
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Legal executives seek litigation and probate rights
A scheme allowing legal executives to set up their own law firms offering litigation and probate services has been put to the government. The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) has applied for the power to grant members civil and family litigation and advocacy rights, as well ...
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Pro bono work rises due to recession
There has been a surge in pro bono work provided by lawyers as a result of the recession, figures have suggested. The increase stems from a combination of a greater need for pro bono work and the fact that some ...
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Pilot scheme to cut libel costs
Efforts to control the costs of defamation actions will step up this autumn with the launch of a year-long costs budgeting pilot. Under the scheme at the Royal Courts of Justice and High Court in Manchester, parties will be required to discuss with each other and ...
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Small firms suffer as PI premiums soar
Solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums have shot up by 50% in a handful of cases as early reports suggest that the renewals season is already proving difficult for small law firms. PII brokers and experts said that some small firms seeking early renewals have already ...
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Solicitors condemn BVT pilot over 'unrealistic' timescale
Solicitors in the best value tendering pilot areas have written a hard-hitting letter to the Legal Services Commission condemning the ‘unrealistic and perilous’ timescale for the pilot, which will spell ‘disaster’ for firms. Half of the 141 firms with criminal contracts in Avon and Somerset and ...
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Bar appeals to Lord Justice Jackson for referral fee ban
Lord Justice Jackson has been urged to recommend a ban or cap on referral fees as part of his review of civil justice costs. In its response to Jackson’s consultation, the Bar Council said referral fees ‘led to bad service and should be abolished’, noting that ...
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Advice for Life charity faced pressure from LSC before closure
Advice for Life, the collapsed parent charity of East Anglia’s two law centres, was struggling to repay funds to the Legal Services Commission before it went bust, it has emerged. Advice for Life’s closure caused Cambridge Law Centre and Huntingdon Law Centre to close for good at the end of ...
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Huge vote of confidence for conveyancing solicitors
Conveyancing solicitors were given a resounding vote of confidence by the public this week as unpublished research seen by the Gazette revealed ‘stratospheric’ levels of satisfaction among consumers. Some 93% of ...
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ABS 'dominance' could push smaller firms out of market
The advent of alternative business structures (ABSs) could bring about a ‘point of no return’ whereby smaller firms are pushed out of the market by powerful new players, a legal thinktank has claimed. The College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute has warned that, by the ...