Latest news – Page 694
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News
OPG calls for more use of non-lawyers to avoid ‘costly legal solutions’
The Office of the Public Guardian is seeking to encourage the use of non-lawyers to act as deputies for those with impaired capacity, so they can avoid ‘costly legal solutions’. In a call for evidence published last week, the OPG is seeking the views of care ...
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Lancashire firm targets deaf clients as staff learn sign language
A Lancashire law firm is set to become the first practice in the country dedicated to providing legal services to the deaf and hard of hearing. Joseph Frasier in Blackburn will next week launch a campaign – Representing Your Right to Be Heard – to help ...
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Cardiff Law School launches GDL conversion course
Cardiff Law School is to add the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) conversion course to its portfolio of legal training courses from September 2012. The law school said that that the GDL scheme, which enables non-law graduates to train for a career in law, has become ...
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Tottenham law firm damaged by fire
The Tottenham offices of London firm EBR Attridge have been damaged by fire during last weekend’s riots. In a statement issued through the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the firm said that despite suffering smoke damage, most files remain intact and are being ‘reassembled’. ...
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Code of conduct for litigation funders moves closer
The Civil Justice Council is expected to agree a new code of conduct for third-party funders of litigation by the end of the year, to be combined with the launch of a new association of litigation funders. Compliance with the new voluntary code will be monitored ...
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Guildford lawyer launches conveyancing tool
A Guildford solicitor has helped develop a new online tool to streamline conveyancing, enabling the mortgage lenders’ compliance process to be completed in ‘five minutes’. Julian Sampson, a partner at Wright & Wright, created the ‘Jet’ programme with Alan Dring, the former director of online conveyancing ...
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SPs eligible to become Judicial Appointments Commissioners
Sole practitioners are eligible to apply for a position as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner, the recruitment agency acting for the Ministry of Justice has confirmed, despite confusion over the wording of the job specification. The specification for the role states that candidates seeking to become a ...
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Wotton stresses ‘opportunity’ presented by ABSs
Law Society president John Wotton will today spell out his belief that alternative business structures can present a significant opportunity for the legal sector.
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ITV clarifies Holden’s comments on QS
ITV’s This Morning has today clarified comments which were made by Amanda Holden in relation to QualitySolicitors. Following representations from the Law Society, QualitySolicitors agreed to ask the show to correct some comments made by the television presenter when she appeared as a guest of the ...
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One in three law centres set to shut down
At least a third of law centres will close if government plans to cut legal aid funding go ahead this autumn, solicitors have predicted. The warning came after the UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm, Law for All, went into administration, weeks after the Immigration ...
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Claimant solicitors to pay half of RTA portal costs
Claimant solicitors are to fund half of the cost of the Road Traffic Accident Portal, the Gazette has learned, in a move that claimant lawyers believe will give them more say in how the system operates. The portal, which launched last year as an information exchange ...
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London firm offers 'divorce insurance'
London law firm Prolegal is to offer ‘divorce insurance’ to clients, in conjunction with a legal expenses insurer. The policy, which will be offered to clients when they make a pre-nuptial agreement, will cover the costs of challenging the pre-nup or adopting it into a ...
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Law firm mergers trend ‘to accelerate’
A high proportion of small and medium-sized firms have completed mergers in the first half of 2011, new research by the Law Consultancy Network suggests. The third set of six-monthly statistics compiled by consultant Andrew Otterburn showed that one in three of the 31 firms surveyed ...
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Big firms coy on external investment talks
Most leading law firms are discussing the potential for external investment ahead of the Legal Services Act coming fully into force – but they are not admitting to it, according to a financial advisory group. Few of the larger firms have shown any public interest in ...
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Diversity boss calls for 'inclusive culture' at legal firms
The incoming global head of diversity and inclusion at City giant Herbert Smith has warned that some law firms still need to do much more to create an ‘inclusive culture’. David Shields, a former director at gay rights organisation Stonewall, said some practices were more concerned ...
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Report highlights dire plight of Syrian lawyers
Human rights lawyers in Syria suffer surveillance and harassment by security officials, and are banned from holding meetings or travelling abroad, according to a report by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI). The report said the international community had ‘great concerns’ over the treatment ...
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1,000 wills-related files found on pavement
More than 1,000 files containing wills and other confidential information were recently found dumped on the pavement outside a will-writing company in Doncaster, the Society of Will Writers (SWW) revealed this week. The files were left by staff at another will-writing company, Gainsborough-based Minster Legal Services ...
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Human rights breakthrough in Mexico
Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that military personnel accused of human rights violations against lawyers and others should be tried in civilian courts instead of military courts, where violations have historically gone unpunished. The ruling follows the publication in March of a Law Society human rights ...
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Misinformed view that legal aid is too easily available
I write in response to Mr Comport’s letter. I do not think he is ‘reactionary’ in respect of legal aid – he voices the legitimately held view of many people in the UK. I do however think he is misinformed.
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More form filling
How gratifying that the Legal Services Board has decided that solicitors have so little to do and such a profitable business model that they should spend money, time and effort in keeping records of the diversity of their workforce. At a time when government is ...