Latest news – Page 664
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Registering discontent
As members of the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme, we wrote to HSBC to enquire whether or not we were still on their panel of solicitors as we had been for many years. We received a letter from Countrywide Property Services to advise that they were administering the HSBC panel ...
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Protect legal privilege, bar urges government
The Bar Council has urged the government to protect the right of citizens to hold private conversations with their lawyers. The call, supported the Law Society, comes as the proposed Protection of Freedoms Bill, intended to protect people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives, goes through parliament.
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DAS back in the black
Legal expenses insurer DAS has reported a dramatic turnaround in financial performance during 2011. The UK group posted a pre-tax profit of £9.74m last year compared with a £470,000 loss in 2010, when the company was hit by increasing claims frequencies and costs. Turnover rose from ...
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Jackson ‘Plan B’ splits claimant lobby
Deep divisions surfaced in the personal injury claimant lobby this week after the proposal of a compromise deal on the Jackson reforms. Leaders of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers said they are now prepared to drop blanket opposition to Jackson’s plans to switch the burden ...
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Law Commission to tidy law on financial provision after break-up
The Law Commission is to bring ‘clarity and predictability’ to the law entitling married couples and civil partners to claim financial provision from one another upon divorce or dissolution of their partnership, it was announced this week. The commission said that it aims to review two ...
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Being pushed out
I work in a provincial practice with three town centre-based offices in Cheshire, and it is with interest that I read about HSBC’s new ’shortlisted’ panel of 43 law firms and licensed conveyancers. This follows talk of some of the other mainstream lenders such as the Lloyds Banking Group also ...
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Call for regulation of legal comparison sites
Comparison websites should commit to a set of voluntary standards to ensure legal service consumers are protected, according to a new report. The Legal Services Consumer Panel today says the websites could help to improve access to legal advice and stimulate greater competition on price and ...
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Private equity investor takes £200m stake in Parabis
Private equity investor Duke Street today confirmed an investment of up to £200m in personal injury umbrella firm Parabis Group in the latest City move into the legal sector. The legal and claims management company, which trades under the names of Plexus Law (defendant firm) ...
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Government to legislate on shared parenting - Clarke
Strengthening shared parenting after divorce and speeding up care and adoption cases are among ‘ambitious and system-wide’ reforms outlined by the government today to improve the family justice system. Responding to the Norgrove Family Justice Review, justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said the government would implement many ...
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Chancery Lane appoints former No 10 adviser as corporate affairs chief
The Law Society has appointed a former adviser to the prime minister to the new role of chief of corporate affairs. Dr Patricia Greer will have responsibility for policy, communications and engaging with solicitors, reporting to chief executive Desmond Hudson. Greer will join in March from ...
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City firm guilty of discrimination, appeal rules
An employment appeal tribunal has ruled that City firm Bivonas discriminated against one of its lawyers on the basis of sexual orientation. Lee Bennett’s discrimination claim focused on a memo from one of the firm’s partners which falsely implied that he instructed only gay barristers and ...
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Fix costs to save the planet, says Jackson
Lord Justice Jackson has recommended a fixed costs regime to ensure the government fulfils its duty in environmental judicial review cases. The Ministry of Justice launched a consultation last year to ask how to comply with the UK’s international obligations as part of the UN Aarhus ...
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Sound defence
I write in defence of advocates representing mentally ill clients. I am concerned that your article promulgates the common perception that lawyers see mental health advocacy as an ‘easy ride’ in comparison with advocacy in other fields.
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Moving banks
In his article on HSBC and conveyancing, Jonathan Smithers rightly says that solicitors may take steps to steer clients away from HSBC.
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Online confusion
Feeling in masochistic mood, I filed my tax return on a recent Sunday morning and applied online for the new SRA practising certificate in the afternoon.
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Court swapping
John Edwards, who wrote in January, will be reassured to know that the common occurrence of cases swapping between courts is one the Crown Prosecution Service has planned for in the new digital world.
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Trial and error
The impression given by Masood Ahmed in his commentary on the 2011 case of Rolf v De Guerin is that any small builder who attempts to resist an entirely unmeritorious claim by defending it in court rather than submitting to mediation will find himself penalised in costs.
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Short shrift
So the Civil Justice Council suggests that one way of dealing with the problems caused to the administration of civil justice by untutored litigants in person is for practitioners to sell them small amounts of legal advice, and gives as an example a firm that charges £7 for 5 minutes. ...
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Good advice?
The Gazette of 19 January contained two separate items that can be usefully linked: one a call to help the public, the other a warning of how such help can be turned against us.
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Sharp practice
In Law Society v LSC et al [2010] EWHC 2550 (Admin) the court acknowledged that solicitors working in the Family Court were ‘a band of skilled and dedicated lawyers working for little reward’. Your edition of 12 January records the entry into administration of Jewels, ...