Last 3 months headlines – Page 1642
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Fraud case judge slams solicitor- advocates for ‘incompetence’
An extraordinary public row has erupted over the role of solicitor-advocates after a Crown Court judge told a court that he came close to discharging a jury because of concerns that a solicitor lacked the competence to represent his client properly. Speaking in open court at ...
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Concern grows over probate ‘cold calls’ to funeral clients
Customers of Co-operative Funeralcare are being called by the organisation’s legal services department offering free advice about probate, a committee of the Law Society will hear this week. The Co-operative denied cold-calling. A spokesman said ‘the vast majority’ of customers welcome free legal advice, and ...
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Darling cuts and cuts again
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Law Officers Departments will have to make a further £85m in efficiency savings as a result of today’s budget. Chancellor Alistair Darling (pictured) today (22 April) earmarked an additional £5bn in efficiency savings across government on ...
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SRA not up to the job, Law Society tells Hunt review
The Solicitors Regulation Authority ‘lacks the sufficient skills, understanding and flexibility to effectively regulate all parts of the profession’, the Law Society has told the independent review of legal regulation, which Chancery Lane commissioned. In its submission to Lord Hunt’s review, Chancery Lane says sole practitioners ...
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Premiums to rise as PII crisis worsens
This year’s professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals season will be at least as difficult as 2008 and probably worse, the joint Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority PII crisis group has concluded. Premiums will rise because of escalating claims on PII policies – especially from the ...
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Vince Cable condemns bankruptcy regime
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable (pictured) has urged restraint in bringing bankruptcy proceedings, saying the process is too ‘cumbersome and costly,’ which allows lawyers to make ‘easy money’. In an interview for the Law Society’s Property in Practice magazine, Cable said that more protections ...
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Moneysupermarket.com launches personal injury leads service
Moneysupermarket.com, the price comparison website, is to launch a personal injury leads service today, becoming the first major consumer-oriented website to enter this arena. The website claims 30 law firms have signed up to receive business leads for people seeking PI legal advice. PAA Leads, the ...
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Talks deadlocked on new process for road traffic claims
Government plans to introduce a new process for handling low-value road traffic claims this autumn are under serious threat, the Gazette can reveal. Talks between all sides to define how the process should work – which it had been hoped would be completed by Christmas – ...
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Youth custody review cuts imprisonment by 42%
A pilot scheme to review youth imprisonment cases has cut the number of custodial sentences by 42%, a study revealed this week. In a joint report on custody panels, the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Local Government Association said the number of young people ...
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Law Society to hire diversity head
The Law Society is proposing to hire a high-profile head of diversity as part of a new framework to promote equality and diversity in the profession. Other measures, expected to be discussed at Council this week, include signing up 100 law firms to a Diversity Charter to be launched this ...
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Herbert Smith managing partner predicts pay freeze
Salaries at City law firms are likely to remain static for some years, Herbert Smith managing partner David Willis (pictured) predicted this week after his firm announced 84 job cuts in London. Salaries will be frozen for all staff except trainees in the firm’s London office ...
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Exhibition celebrates 60 years of legal aid
Sixty years after the birth of legal aid, 83% of the general public say they have little or no knowledge of the scheme, according to new research. To fill the gap, and to mark the anniversary of the passing of the Legal Aid Act in July, the Legal Services Commission ...
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City giant announces job cuts
City firm Herbert Smith will cut up to 84 London staff and freeze salaries across its London office, the firm announced today (20 April). Up to 30 fee-earners will be made redundant as part of the cuts, while the pay freeze, which comes in to force in September, will ...
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Women solicitors: still not equal
The Association of Women Solicitors’ submission to Lord Hunt’s regulation review tells an all-too-familiar story. It describes how women remain ‘underrepresented at senior levels despite making up the majority of new entrants into the profession and.... underrepresented in certain practice areas, particularly those which are rewarded more highly’.
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Taylor Wessing asks staff to buy extra holiday
City firm Taylor Wessing is to cut up to nine associates and nine support staff and has asked all staff to buy extra holiday by means of a salary cut. The firm said today (21 April) that the latter proposal is ‘one of a number of ...
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Next generation
As if grown-up clients weren’t trouble enough, staff at City firm Nabarro have taken to working with 14-year-olds. As part of a corporate social responsibility drive, seven volunteers spent a day with 25 pupils at Westminster Academy to teach them how the commercial world works. The ‘Project Business’ programme aims ...
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Star trekker
When Obiter called Paola Fudakowska, solicitor at City firm Withers, she admitted feeling a bit ropey. ‘We had a fundraiser last night – wine-tasting at Vivat Bacchus.’ Such are the hardships one must suffer on the way to Everest base camp. Fudakowska (pictured) is one ...
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Memory lane
A request for manors; how a solicitor won the Grand National and the Gay news blasphemous libel case from the Gazette archives this week. The Law Society’s Gazette, April 1929 ...
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Speedy recovery
Last week’s Obiter brought you what was almost undoubtedly history’s longest-running lawsuit – Crown v City of London. (James I issued proceedings in 1613 claiming ownership of Smithfield Market. Judgment was given some 379 years later.)
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Why effective representation in police stations is vital
Ed Cape is a solicitor. If you are a criminal practitioner you will know his name – he is an expert on the role of police station duty solicitors. For many years he practised in the Bristol St Paul’s area.