Last 3 months headlines – Page 1675
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KBF court action threat
Key Business Finance (KBF), the legal lender currently in administration, has been threatened with legal action by 10 law firms over advance payments made to the company. The 10 firms feature in a list, compiled by administrators Ernst & Young last week, of 125 firms ...
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Contingency fees 'nothing to worry about' - new study
The case for contingency fees in England and Wales received another boost this week after research seen by the Gazette found that their use in employment tribunals throws up few major concerns. The study – the first of its kind – said contingency fees in tribunals ...
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Arbitration soars
Demand for arbitration has soared this year, figures from the London Court of International Arbitration reveal. The court has heard 198 cases to date – 61 more than last year and 66% more than the average over the previous four years. ...
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Duty prosecutors advice plea
Duty prosecutors should provide early legal advice to police officers so that weak cases can be stopped at an earlier stage, according to an inspection report of new charging arrangements. The finding comes from a joint review of charging arrangements by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution ...
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CCBE warning on the threat of notaries
A backdoor bid by continental notaries to beat off the threat of competition is meeting fierce resistance from lawyers across Europe. At its plenary session in Brussels last weekend, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) abandoned its historically neutral position on the notarial profession to pass ...
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Bar raises court fears
The Bar Council has alleged that Crown Court cases are being disrupted because barristers are being forced to undertake litigators’ work when solicitors fail to attend hearings. In a letter to the Legal Services Commission’s Criminal Defence Service, the chairman of the council’s remuneration committee, ...
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LCS to cut spend by 10% next year
The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) is to spend 10% less next year than it will in 2008 as the organisation begins to wind down, according to board papers made public last week. In the year beginning January 2009, the service’s budget, which comes from the ...
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Anthony Edwards presented with outstanding achievement award
Anthony Edwards, senior partner at TV Edwards and Gazette contributor, was presented with the outstanding achievement award by Cherie Booth QC at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2008. Other winners included Jackson & Canter, which won Legal Aid Law Firm of the ...
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Lawyers slam tribunal scam
Lawyers have demanded that the Tribunals Service ‘join the 21st century’ before scammers overwhelm courts with multiple age-discrimination claims. The scam targets job advertisements containing ageist phrases like ‘newly qualified’. The scammers apply for all such jobs and, if not offered the posts, threaten to take ...
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High-visibility jackets accompany community sentences
From this week offenders carrying out community sentences must wear high-visibility jackets branded with the ‘community payback’ logo. Justice secretary Jack Straw (pictured, left, with home secretary Jacqui Smith, right) said: ‘The taxpayer has an absolute right to know what unpaid work is being done to pay back to them ...
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Copyright, music and exemption: playing music in public
A government review of copyright exemptions for playing of recorded music may force some not-for-profit bodies to turn off their TVs, radios and CD players. They and charitable bodies may soon decide that silence is golden if the repeal of current exemptions means they will have ...
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Immigration law
Entry clearances – Public order offences – Reasons – Snoop dog Cordozar Broadus (USA) v Entry Clearance Officer: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Laws, Carnwath, Richards): 13 November 2008 The ...
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Civil procedure
Costs – Allocation – Conduct – Multi-track – Small claims David Peakman v Linbrooke Services Ltd: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Goldring, Lady Justice Smith): 13 November 2008 The ...
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Human rights
Defamation – Education – Local government – Privacy – School exclusions H v Tomlinson: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Ward, Sedley, Longmore): 13 November 2008 The appellant head teacher ...
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Criminal law
Police – Torts – False imprisonment – Suspicion – Terrorism – Unlawful arrest Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Mohamed Raissi: CA (Civ Div) (Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, Lords Justice Maurice Kay, Stanley Burnton): ...
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Offshoring legal work: do lawyers risk outsourcing themselves?
When City firm Lovells was faced with reviewing more than a million documents as part of a major case, it decided to outsource the work to India – saving more than £3m in the process. This is a sign of the times – increasingly, client pressure over fees is prompting ...
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Unresolved issues relating to the role of the Supreme Court
Despite the refreshing openness of last week’s judicial seminar on the Supreme Court, some of the most difficult questions remain unanswered. We learned, for example, that more than 30 applications have been received for the three judicial posts that will have become vacant by next October ...
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The law of Property Act 1925 will not rescue clients
I refer to the unfortunate question raised in Calvert Solicitors’ letter, asking if the current recession is an ‘exceptional circumstance’ that would allow the return of a deposit under section 49(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925 (see [2008] Gazette, 13 November, 13).
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Amend the contract
Calvert raises a point which, during the downturn in the financial and property markets, could cause considerable grief for property buyers. This concerns a buyer whose deposit has been forfeited turning to his solicitor’s indemnity policy to recoup his loss. Notwithstanding the fact that the Law ...
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Land Registry DIY disaster
How embarrassing for the Land Registry. It thought it could handle all property transactions and cut out the solicitors with electronic conveyancing and their own rules. Now we find that electronic conveyancing is shelved and the rules have been changed to make solicitors the last line of defence against fraud ...