Latest news – Page 751
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3,000 high street firms could disappear - Clarke
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke yesterday warned lawyers to prepare for changes as far reaching as the ‘big bang’ proved to be for the financial sector. Clarke told members of Birmingham Law Society that alternative business structures (ABSs) would herald a ‘whole new world’ for lawyers. From ...
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LSC hit by £300,000 legal bill over tender
The Legal Services Commission faces a £300,000 bill for the Law Society’s legal costs, after losing a High Court battle over its family tender process. The LSC said it could not disclose how much it had spent on its own legal fees in defending the action, ...
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Court figures show rise in FTSE 100 litigation
The number of High Court cases involving FTSE 100 companies has risen 16% in the last year, research from legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell has revealed. In the year to 30 June 2010, the study shows there were 179 cases involving the FTSE 100, ...
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Firms make applications to assigned risks pool
Some 409 firms applied to enter the assigned risks pool (ARP) on 1 October, the deadline for professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal, according to figures released by the Solicitors Regulation Authority today. The SRA said this is roughly the same number of deadline day applications as ...
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Mayer Brown outsources secretarial practice
The London corporate group of US firm Mayer Brown has outsourced its entire secretarial practice, the firm announced today. Corporate administrative outsourcer TMF Group, which runs 87 corporate administration companies in 67 countries, has acquired the practice. Peter Dickinson, head of the ...
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High Court to rule on LSC tender review
The High Court will rule today on the outcome of the Law Society’s expedited judicial review challenge of the Legal Services Commission’s family tender. The three-day proceedings heard by Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Beatson concluded on Monday, with judgment expected to be handed down ...
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Supreme Court ‘under review’ as legal quangos face axe
Solicitors have voiced deep concern about the future of the Supreme Court, after it appeared on a leaked list of public institutions and quangos facing review or abolition by the coalition government. According to the leaked Cabinet Office list, nine legal quangos are among 177 ...
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How can this be access to justice?
I read with interest the letter from Hugh Barrett , executive director, Legal Services Commission. He seems to have forgotten that two important components of access to justice are independent advice and conflicts of interest.
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Anti-piracy firm website breach
The website of London anti-piracy firm ACS:Law has been attacked, leading to the leak of email archives and personal data of thousands of internet users. It is understood that the names and addresses of more than 5,000 people alleged by the firm to have engaged ...
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Flood liability warning for conveyancers
Conveyancers could be exposing themselves to liability by failing to obtain information about flooding, which is set to become the latest ‘uninsurable risk’, a leading commercial property solicitor has warned. Suzanne Gill, a commercial property partner at McGrigors in London, said that flooding is affecting an ...
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Let CMCs operate within the rules
I am writing to respond to John Holtom’s letter last week. Banning claims management companies would return us to the position we were in before the Ministry of Justice launched the regulation of claims management companies (CMCs) in 2007 – where CMCs could get away with cold-calling, giving misleading ...
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Lawyers protest over proposed closure of Mayor’s and City court
City lawyers have criticised government proposals to close the oldest local civil court in England, which they claim is one of the most efficient and successful county courts in London. The government is consulting on closing the historic Mayor’s and City court, along with 54 ...
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Law Society president and colleagues fight for members
As a partner in a small property-based firm that started just 18 months ago, I have been greatly concerned by two issues in particular – mortgage panels and professional indemnity insurance. Like many colleagues in the provinces, it has often appeared to me that the ‘powers that be’ within the ...
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Tributes paid to Trevor Aldridge, the first solicitor QC
Solicitors have paid tribute to Trevor Aldridge, the first solicitor to become a QC, following his death earlier this month aged 76. Aldridge was a former law commissioner and a longstanding member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee (CLLC). He remained an active ...
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‘Allegations’ against solicitors in decline
The number of ‘allegations’ made against solicitors which have led to risk assessments by the profession’s regulator has fallen, with a sharp drop in the number relating to mortgages and property, figures have shown. A paper submitted to the Law Society’s management board last week suggested ...
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Legal Services Board rules out fresh referral fee ban
The Legal Services Board has today effectively ruled out a ban on referral fees, but is likely to impose greater standards of transparency in their use. In a paper outlining plans to improve regulation of referral fee arrangements, the LSB says there is not ‘sufficient evidence’ ...
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Djanogly sticks to October 2011 timetable for ABSs
‘All lawyers’ should be preparing for the introduction of alternative business structures in October 2011, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said last week, as the coalition government gave the first public confirmation that it will press ahead with the reforms and will stick to the timetable already in place. ...
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Five solicitors shortlisted for Gazette Legal Personality of the Year Award
Five solicitors have been shortlisted for the Gazette’s Legal Personality of the Year Award, with the winner to be announced at the Law Society’s Excellence Awards ceremony in October.
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Five firms ‘put in intensive care’ by banks
Five of the UK’s top-30 law firms have been put into ‘intensive care’ by banks, a top solicitor claimed this week. Mark Jones, chairman of national firm Addleshaw Goddard, told the second Global Managing Partners Summit conference in London that he fears another law firm failure ...
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Injury claims carry a ‘social stigma’
The public’s ignorance of the law is one of the major obstacles that is preventing people from gaining access to justice through personal injury claims, and most believe that making a claim would be ‘working the system’, according to a report by National Accident Helpline based on a poll of ...