Latest news – Page 659
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Clarke: ‘We’re taking legal aid away from lawyers’
The government’s legal aid cuts are aimed at lawyers, the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said today, as he rejected the Law Society’s claims that they will harm access to justice for the disadvantaged. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Clarke said: ‘We’re not taking legal aid ...
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Opponents score hat-trick on legal aid votes
The government lost all three votes in the Lords last night over proposed amendments to its legal aid bill, making concessions on the evidence needed to prove domestic violence and on powers to bring cases back into the scope of legal aid. In a series of ...
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Survey shows hundreds of code of conduct breaches
Regulators have discovered hundreds of potential breaches of the new code of conduct during visits to law firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority says it found a lack of understanding of the code during its survey of 200 firms carried out before the new code’s release in ...
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Committal fee cut ‘leaves defendants unrepresented’
Defendants are being left unrepresented in magistrates’ courts following the government’s scrapping of lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings in either-way offences, the Law Society told the High Court this week. Lord Justice Burnton and Mr Justice Treacy heard the Society’s legal challenge to the lawfulness of ...
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Judicial evaluation key to quality assurance, SRA says
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed that it regards judicial evaluation as a ‘central feature’ of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. However, chief executive Antony Townsend warned today that quality assurance ‘should not be used as a device to exclude the demonstrably competent simply because their pattern of practice ...
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Court clerk turns to Google to fill interpreting gap
A court has resorted to web translation to communicate with a defendant as the fiasco over the government’s new interpreting regime continues to disrupt hearings.
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Cash crisis could close half of CABs
Half of the 3,500 CAB advice centres run by the Citizens Advice charity could close as the government continues to squeeze legal aid and other sources of funding. News of the possible cull comes as the government prepares to give CAB extra work following its ‘bonfire of the quangos’. ...
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Government announces legal aid concessions
The government has made two key concessions demanded by opponents of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill, days before the legislation enters report stage in the House of Lords. In amendments tabled today, the government accepted that the broad definition of domestic violence ...
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Conveyancing forms update plan
The Law Society is seeking views on revising its general enquiry forms for residential conveyancing. It aims to update the property information form TA6 and the fittings and contents form TA10, which are filled in by sellers. Jonathan Smithers, chair of the Society’s land ...
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A bit of give and take
Fiona Woolf overlooks the contribution of clients with regard to her hopes that more women will reach the top in law firms. I agree that many law firms find it difficult to accommodate flexible working, but it is clients too who need to change their attitude to women lawyers.
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First complaint
For many years I have been a very contented customer of First Direct for my personal banking. I have recommended the service to others, including clients, unhesitatingly. No longer. While I still get an excellent service, I have complained to First Direct about their owner HSBC’s ...
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MoJ warned two years ago over interpreters
Ministry of Justice officials were warned two years ago that a central contract for courtroom interpreter services would lead to wrongful detentions, the Gazette has learned. Emails from a body representing interpreters also warned in 2010 that members would boycott the scheme. The MoJ and its ...
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BSB code hints at OFR
The Bar Standards Board has outlined a move towards solicitor firm-style outcomes-focused regulation, in a consultation which also proposes the immediate suspension of some barristers facing disciplinary action. In papers published this week, the BSB sets out its aim to introduce a single handbook of rules, ...
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Let's separate
At last some common sense. I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments in the letter from Michael Brough. It is high time that lenders and borrowers were separately represented, and we take ourselves out of the potential conflicts of interest that often arise. ...
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Scrap it all
I fully agree with Michael Brough’s letter in the Gazette. I have been saying the same thing for several years - but the Law Society seems to be afraid separate representation will put up the cost of house buying. It might do, but only by a ...
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Level playing field
Sunil Kambli's letter suggesting that the Law Society should require separate representation of mortgage lenders may point the way forward here. However, any such requirement must be imposed on all recognised bodies, including licensed conveyancers and alternative business structures. Any rule change would have to exclude borrowers' solicitors giving any ...
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No limit
I have today been faxed by solicitors acting for a prospective purchaser. They inform me they are having to deal with Countrywide as their clients are having an HSBC mortgage. I am required apparently to undertake on completion to discharge all mortgages on the property. This is of course contrary ...
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No practical joke
I refer to the letter from David Kirwan ‘Writing on the wall’. When I started the Legal Practice Course in September 1996, I was astounded to be given a spelling and grammar test, particularly since the last time I had done anything like that had been when I was at ...
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Law now reserved for the wealthy
Has the door to the law silently closed to those who are either not from wealthy backgrounds or do not have connections in the profession? How many of today’s lawyers have working-class origins, compared with solicitors five, 10 or 20 years ago?
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Learning on the job
Dr Critchlow rightly suggests that those who want to be called doctor should take a PhD or LLD. When I was in Iran on business in 2010 giving two-day courses in Isfahan and on Kish Island I was perturbed to see that the certificates of ...