Latest news – Page 584
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News
Northern barristers vote en masse to reject QASA
Northern circuit barristers have overwhelmingly voted to reject the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) in a secret ballot carried out at end of the March. It has become the first circuit to declare its hand, after the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association Michael Turner ...
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Law Society stands by Jackson CFA guidance
The Law Society has said it stands by its draft model conditional fee agreement, which was issued ahead of the Jackson reforms coming into force. The Society has faced criticism from some online commentators that the documents contained errors and could not be relied upon. ...
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Ex-Shearman’s partner bankrolls barrister-matching site
An online service promoting fast direct access to silks and junior barristers, akin to dating site match.com, will launch this week, matching clients to barristers without the need for a solicitor. myBarrister is the brainchild of former Shearman & Sterling partner and dual-qualified US lawyer and ...
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Solicitor wins BBC RTA apology
The BBC has apologised after failing to reveal its source for a claim that one in seven RTA claims results from a staged collision. Home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds made the unattributed claim on a News at Ten report on 15 February on the conviction of ...
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Chancery Lane consults on ‘unworkable’ tendering exercise
The Law Society has published its own consultation on the ‘potentially catastrophic’ price-competitive tendering (PCT) model in advance of the government’s paper expected later this month. The Society is calling on solicitors to respond with alternatives to the planned introduction of PCT for the tendering of ...
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Stop fathers drifting out of children’s lives
You will have to excuse me for not sharing the optimism of the Kingsley Napley partners about the Children and Families Bill in their article ‘Changing perceptions’. It was published a week after your magazine carried a front-page article: ‘Unpaid overtime costs lawyers £14k’. As Frances O’Grady said, the hours ...
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Iranian women in exile
I recently returned from Paris where I spoke on behalf of the Law Society at the International Women’s Day conference in support of Iranian women in exile. There are 1,000 Iranian women held in two camps in Iraq, where they have been refugees for 25 years. They are the residents ...
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Pay up, please, lawyers
Congratulations to local government lawyers for securing from the Solicitors Regulation Authority a rule change allowing them to charge local charities for legal services. Self-evidently, this is a commercial income-generating arrangement, not a philanthropic endeavour. In the spirit of a level playing field, presumably lawyers ...
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Bias concerns
Joshua Rozenberg’s article ‘Balancing act’ (4 March) discusses Lady Hale’s lecture on equality in the judiciary and the question of ‘positive discrimination in senior judicial appointments’. The emphasis appears to be on the appointment of more women, but there is little discussion of African, Caribbean and Asian applicants.
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Why the fuss over RTA?
I read that Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson sees the changes in low-value RTA litigation as ‘serious.’ He notes ‘all the spurious talk about fraudulent claims’. I can see his point but, having defended fraudulent insurance claims for the past 16 years, I can assure ...
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In the loop
I would like to thank your team for the Daily Gazette updates. I read them after work on my iPad and your articles have helped me plan various strategies for the survival of our practice, while the personal injury and civil litigation worlds seem to be collapsing all around us. ...
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Society wins apology for legal aid injustice
The Law Society has declared itself vindicated after the Legal Services Commission apologised for ‘maladministration’ that caused ‘injustice’ to legal aid solicitors. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman upheld a complaint made by the Society in 2008 that the commission failed both to run a recoupment ...
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Judges ‘ill-prepared’ for Jackson
Judges in the vanguard of the post-Jackson costs management era will go into April armed with just 4.5 hours of training, a quarterly newsletter and a podcast. In a response to a freedom of information request, the Judicial College confirmed that all 728 salaried civil judges ...
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LLPs set for tax avoidance probe
Law firms operating as LLPs could be caught in a planned crackdown on avoidance of national insurance payments. In last week’s budget, chancellor George Osborne announced plans to consult on ‘removing the presumption of self-employment’ from limited liability partnerships. The budget ...
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Firm explores online advice to defendants
One of the country’s largest criminal defence firms is exploring how legal advice could be given to clients online. Mike Rainford (pictured), head of business crime at north-west firm Burton Copeland, told the Gazette this week that the firm is in discussions with IT companies to ...
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Burden of proof on firms after fee ban
Personal injury firms will be expected to retain records and management information from next Monday to prove that payments for cases do not fall within the referral fee ban. Definitive rules for the ban will be published when the SRA Handbook is changed to coincide with ...
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SFO questioned over use of Slaughter and May
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry has raised questions about the Serious Fraud Office’s decision to retain a magic circle firm to defend potentially the most expensive case in its history. Attorney general Dominic Grieve confirmed earlier this month that the SFO had brought in Slaughter and ...
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Watchdog may survive ‘bonfire of the quangos’
Government plans to throw a legal watchdog on to its ‘bonfire of the quangos’ have suffered a blow after the House of Commons justice committee opposed the move. The committee said there is not a strong enough case for the abolition of the Administrative Justice ...
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Pathway to Law scheme boosted by £1.2m grant
An educational charity has secured a £1.2m grant to help 1,200 sixth formers from less privileged backgrounds pursue a career in the law. The Legal Education Foundation has given £1.2m to the Sutton Trust to fund its Pathways to Law programme, open to low- and middle-income ...
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Ukraine eyes EU with code revision
Ukraine has announced a revised criminal procedure code centred on ‘freedom and human rights’ in what is believed to be an attempt to ease its entry into the European Union. Ukraine must meet certain conditions by May if it is to join the EU, including ridding ...