Latest news – Page 608
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News
Fury and bewilderment at plans to curb judicial reviews
Lawyers responded critically to the prime minister’s call today for measures to cut the number of applications for judicial review. Adam Chapman, partner and head of public law at national firm Kingsley Napley, described the focus on judicial reviews as ‘a peculiar target’ in the ...
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Society ‘looking at alternatives to client accounts’
The Law Society is looking at whether solicitors still need to have client accounts and what other options could be available to help cut the cost of regulation. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson told the Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates annual conference on Saturday ...
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RTA costs to be cut by £700
The government is set to slash £700 from the fixed recoverable costs for low-level claims handled through the RTA Portal scheme, the Gazette can reveal. According to figures released today by the Ministry of Justice, solicitors running claims valued at up to £10,000 will be able to claim £500 in ...
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Supreme Court justice calls for positive discrimination on the menu
Positive discrimination is the only thing likely to significantly accelerate the rate of progress towards a more diverse judiciary, a Supreme Court judge has suggested. Lord Sumption, who is also a former member of the Judicial Appointments Commission, said positive discrimination to increase the number of ...
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Welsh jurisdiction 'cart without a horse'
The case for a separate legal jurisdiction for Wales is ‘considerably weakened’ without devolved responsibility for policing and justice, the nation’s most senior lawyer said tonight. Theo Huckle, counsel general for Wales, said respondents to this year’s Welsh assembly government consultation on a separate jurisdiction had ...
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Last-chance warning on COLPs and COFAs
Hundreds of law firms risk losing their licence to practise within a matter of weeks unless they appoint compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs), and finance and administration (COFAs). Some 400 have still to do so, despite more than three months having elapsed since the 31 July deadline and repeated ...
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Don’t meddle with education and training, Neuberger warns
The president of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, has warned regulators to hold back from radical change to legal education and training. Neuberger warned that too much emphasis on consumer interests could undermine the rule of law. The Legal and Education Training Review, set up by ...
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Efforts to challenge domestic violence are welcome
Thank you to Wragge & Co and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for their commendable initiatives in challenging domestic violence. I experienced domestic violence over a number of years while a solicitor in a City law firm, my ex-husband being a solicitor in another City law firm.
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Cause for complaint
I read the article by John Hyde entitled ‘Progress slow on standards’ with increasing disgruntlement over my coffee on Friday morning.
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Cheque mystery
On 12 September I sent an application to set aside a default judgment to Northampton. I was urged to send a cheque payable to an organisation by the name of ‘HM Courts and Tribunal Service’. My cheque was cashed on 3 October, since when I have heard nothing. I have ...
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Client care is top priority
As a (thankfully now semi-retired) solicitor of another generation, I was completely taken aback by the publication of James Caan’s comments. The headline - in the magazine - is: ‘Dragons’ Den star: It’s about the money.’ Is it?
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‘Injustice’ is a dirty word
James Caan played an unsophisticated and ruthless mercenary (Santino Corleone) in The Godfather. His namesake is now given space on your front page to argue a similar philosophy.
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Putting money before ethics
Granted there is much to criticise in the investment/business model of partnership but those are commercial problems that can be fixed privately. If they cannot, you walk, simple as that. Reading, however, that James Caan now owns a law firm, I ruefully thought back to a ...
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Bar chief rebuffed over LSB closure
Calls from the bar for the disbanding of the Legal Services Board met with a cool reception from the government this week. Bar Council chair Michael Todd QC told the bar’s annual conference that the super-regulator was going ‘beyond its brief’ and creating ‘burdensome costs’. ...
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Grayling renews human rights assault after Qatada release
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has used the Abu Qatada deportation debacle to strengthen his call for reform of European human rights laws. The radical Islamic cleric was released on bail this week after a special immigration appeals commission allowed his appeal against deportation to Jordan, ...
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Local government merger plan
Lawyers in Local Government is likely to be the name of a new body combining Solicitors in Local Government, which represents 4,000 local government lawyers in England and Wales, and the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors. The merger move coincides with the Law Society’s ...
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Claims management regulation ‘won't be transferred’
The government will resist calls to transfer claims management regulation to another independent regulator. Justice minister Helen Grant (pictured) told a House of Commons debate last week that fundamental change was wrong at a time when reforms were tackling bad practice by the sector. ...
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Kent firm Cripps brings in property expert
Expertise from the property industry is to guide expansion at Kent firm Cripps Harries Hall, the latest law firm to announce the appointment of a high-profile non-executive consultant. Christopher Digby-Bell (pictured), a director and general counsel at property investment business Palmer Capital, has been appointed ...
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Litigants in person ‘need more support’
A former aviation director who represented himself in court has called for the government and legal profession to do more to help self-represented people. Peter Elliott said he was ‘utterly frightened’ when he first walked into Manchester’s high court four years ago and was reduced to ...
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Society mental health scheme to become mandatory
Membership of the Law Society’s mental health accreditation scheme will be mandatory for legal aid practitioners from 2014, it emerged this week. A provision is to be added to the legal aid contract under which only people with accreditation will be entitled to provide legally ...