Last 3 months headlines – Page 1686
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SRA considers rise in Compensation Fund levy
Cash-strapped solicitors may have to pay ‘a significantly larger’ sum into the Compensation Fund as more firms require intervention in a deepening recession. Papers considered last week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority board forecast that the number of interventions is expected to rise from 71 in 2008 to more than ...
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Reforms to the Local Transport Act 2008 will create more work for lawyers
The humble bus is about to drive through a number of new avenues for litigation, following enactment of the Local Transport Act 2008. Traffic commissioners, most of whom were originally solicitors, will gain wider powers to fine operators who run unsafe vehicles, to impound the offending ...
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Data page for April 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. Downloads Download the ...
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Budget savings through IT? Don’t make me laugh
Alistair Darling’s budget was always going to be about saving money. A lot of money. It turns out that the Ministry of Justice has to find nearly £1.1bn in savings, and the Law Officers Departments must find £94m (see online news).
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Kenny says LSB will transform the market
Chris Kenny (pictured), chief executive of the Legal Services Board, last week vowed to transform the legal services market, promising to promote competition and – as early as mid-2011 – license the first alternative business structures.
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Solicitors debate referral fees
Solicitors are ‘crap at marketing’ and need claims management companies (CMCs) to fill the gap, a delegate told the APIL conference. A debate, ‘Referral fees and advertising – is it too late to put the genie back in the bottle?’, chaired by TV presenter John Stapleton (pictured), aroused strong passions.
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HMRC enforcement head announces crackdown on tax havens
Drafters of tax avoidance schemes face greater scrutiny over the coming months as HM Revenue & Customs moves to close loopholes and bolster its disclosure regime, according to the head of the Revenue’s anti-tax avoidance group. Chris Tailby, a barrister who has directed the Revenue’s anti-avoidance ...
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Auditors seek cap on insolvency liability
The ‘big four’ accountancy firms are to lobby the government to further limit their liability as auditors in the event of corporate collapse, despite lawyers’ concerns that client companies would be ill-advised to agree to such a step. A spokeswoman for the Institute of Chartered ...
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Acquisitions, property development and dimond shares
Power stakes: City firm Herbert Smith advised Chinese power producer Huaneng Power International on acquiring a 55% stake in YangLiuQing Co-generation and a 41% stake in Beijing Co-generation from Huaneng International Power Development Corporation. The stakes are worth RMB2.35bn (£237m) combined.
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Minister questions legal aid priorities at 60th anniversary debate
Legal aid has ‘failed the very people it was set up to protect’ the minister in charge, told a debate hosted by the Law Society this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid Act. In the discussion, chaired by the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, ...
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Work out what pricing means or expect to go under
‘Most lawyers haven’t got a clue about pricing – no other industry in the world can do "cost-plus", and now neither can law firms. We’ve got to start training lawyers to estimate pricing.’
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Cash-strapped universities hold out begging bowl
British law students are in for a rough ride, it seems. The Financial Times reported yesterday that top universities are losing money at an astounding rate, pointing to huge deficits in the funding they receive from the government and the actual cost of education.
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More City firms wield the axe
Two big City firms have today announced another raft of redundancies, with a combined total of up to 50 lawyers and up to 115 support staff facing the axe. Berwin Leighton Paisner will cut up to 30 lawyers and up to 55 support staff, while CMS ...
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Land Registry overhauls registration procedure
The Land Registry is to apply a new ‘early completion’ practice from 3 August, to ensure that registration applications are completed as quickly as possible. The practice will apply to all situations where an application for a discharge of whole has been received with another ...
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Hunt to recommend pre-emptive role for the SRA
The review of legal regulation commissioned by the Law Society is likely to recommend that the Solicitors Regulation Authority carry out more pre-emptive and advisory visits to firms, especially those deemed to be ‘at risk’, its author has revealed. Lord Hunt of Wirral , the man ...
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Hundreds of Colombian lawyers murdered but no one prosecuted, report reveals
More than 400 Colombian lawyers have been murdered since 1991 but no one has been prosecuted for a single killing, a devastating report from 42 British lawyers who visited Colombia last year has revealed.
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Criminal law: defence costs orders and more
Important provisions in relation to the taxation of defence costs orders, made in the magistrates’ court, came into effect on 13 October 2008. All such bills delivered after that date will now be taxed by the appropriate National Taxing Team rather than by the court itself.
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Minority Lawyers Conference
The Minority Lawyers Conference was held last weekend. For many students and young solicitors, and indeed myself, it was inspiring to see and hear successful BME speakers...
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US education provider in for BPP law school
BPP Holdings, which owns BPP Law School, announced today that it has received a buyout-approach from US education provider Apollo Global. BPP told the stock exchange that it has received a preliminary approach to purchase the company at 620p per share in cash, a 70% premium ...
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Green paper proposes role for local community in selecting judges
Aspiring district judges could have to win the endorsement of local community figures to secure appointment, under new proposals unveiled by the government today (29 April). The Ministry of Justice wants communities to work with the Judicial Appointments Commission in the ‘selection and deployment’ of district ...