Latest news – Page 644
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Prepare for 50% fee cuts, says ‘end of lawyers’ professor
Rapid change in the legal profession threatens everyone from in-house lawyers to large City firms, according to IT consultant Professor Richard Susskind. The former IT adviser to the lord chief justice told the Law Society Management Conference last week that the economic climate will force clients to seek out these ...
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Justice and Security Bill faces a rough ride
The Justice & Security Bill is to allow the courts, through the ‘limited use of closed proceedings’, to consider all material relating to a case without needing to disclose information that could risk national security. The government says its purpose is to ‘respond to the challenge ...
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Serwotka threatens more disruption after ‘brilliant’ court strike
A union leader has threatened a further strike next month after industrial action by court workers across the country. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said yesterday’s one-day strike had received ‘brilliant support’ from members working in the courts service. The ...
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LSB chair brushes aside critics in robust defence of liberalisation
The chair of the Legal Services Board yesterday rebutted allegations that the quango is overreaching itself by seeking to 'micro-manage’ professional regulation. 'People and glasshouses spring to mind,’ David Edmonds (pictured) told a seminar on regulation at the Royal Festival Hall organised by Russell-Cooke and chaired ...
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Future is fixed billing - Neuberger
Master of the rolls Lord Neuberger has warned that alternative business structures may sound the ‘death knell’ for hourly billing. Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers conference today, Neuberger said clients were increasingly put off by hourly billing and attracted by fixed fees. As well ...
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Apprenticeship scheme for legal services
The first legal services apprenticeships are to be made available from next year to employers seeking skilled paralegal and other legal support staff. The London Apprenticeship Company (LAC) announced today that it had teamed up with charity Skills for Justice to place young people into apprenticeships ...
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Living life on the edge
I read with interest your feature ‘Time out’. As a solicitor who failed to achieve a work/life balance, I hope that my experience may be a lesson to others. I was a partner in a small firm for 23 years. For 21 of those years, I was a full-time working ...
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Competitive instinct
It was gratifying to read about the final of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting’s annual mooting competition, held at the Law Society.
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Tackling fraud
Kenneth Clarke is making the important problem of fraudulent whiplash claims unnecessarily complicated. The answer to the problem is not only staring the government in the face, it is positively jumping up and down and screaming.
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Advice warning
May I suggest that there are three reasons why solicitors should not accept the invitation extended by District Judge Richard Chapman in his recentComment.
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Expert review
Solicitors who need to instruct a psychologist in a family matter may be wondering what to do after recent media coverage of the report from Professor Jane Ireland.
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Out of pocket
I read with interest the comment from Peter Lewis, head of CJS Efficiency Programme. I am beginning to lose count of similar claims and ‘recommendations’ for us to sign up to this new system.
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Disputing costs
The suggestion by Laura Kelly that £400 to £500 after-the-event policies are responsible for the ‘mess’ in the civil legal costs system should be taken with a big pinch of salt.
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So, farewell then
It is obvious to everyone in the road traffic accident claims business that in the last four to five years things have changed. The number of claims, whether false, exaggerated, or genuine but minor, has exploded.
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No career choice
With the season of work experience students upon us, I am very glad that we have accepted few applicants this year. I am sure they are enthusiastic young things who just want to ‘help people’, but I would be curmudgeonly enough to advise them not to bother with the legal ...
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Civil court system faces ‘meltdown’
The civil and family court system is facing the prospect of chaos as the government prepares to cut face-to-face counter services and problems persist at the Salford civil claims centre, lawyers have warned.
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Grieve spells out ‘modernise or die’ message to adversarial system
The adversarial criminal justice system will survive only if practitioners embrace modernisation, the attorney general warned solicitors last week. Dominic Grieve QC told the Law Society’s criminal law conference that he believed ‘passionately’ in the adversarial system, which ‘delivers qualitatively better outcomes’ than cheaper regimes. ...
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Solicitors could access fraudster register
Insurers have suggested they may be willing to accede to solicitors’ demands to share information on known fraudsters. Personal injury lawyers have urged insurers to give them access to records of people who have made false claims. The Association of British Insurers is preparing a new ...
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Solicitors have ‘duty’ to disclose funding options
A leading US litigation funder has claimed lawyers have a ‘legal and ethical duty’ to tell clients about alternative funding options. Selvyn Seidel, co-founder and chairman of Fulbrook Management, told the Gazette that there is still a lack of information about the industry, despite most of ...
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Judges will make QASA unworkable, says Kelcey
Judges will make the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates ‘totally unworkable’ by refusing to engage with the assessment of candidates, a leading criminal solicitor-advocate has warned. Ian Kelcey, senior partner at Bristol firm Kelcey and Hall, told the Law Society’s criminal law conference last ...