Latest news – Page 757
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News
New law firm model could ease PII woes
A law firm has developed an innovative new structure that it believes could help small firms and sole practitioners obtain professional indemnity insurance (PII). Virtual firm Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair (Scomo) will join up with a small number of other firms under one ‘umbrella LLP’ that ...
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FSA underlines policyholder right to choose solicitor
The Financial Services Authority has ordered legal expenses insurers to prove to the regulator that they comply with European law that gives policyholders certain rights to choose their own solicitor. The FSA’s insurance sector director Ken Hogg warned insurers that, in light of a European Court ...
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Law Commission calls for greater use of civil penalties
The Law Commission has proposed a cut in the number of criminal offences for regulatory breaches. In a consultation published last week, the commission suggested that using civil penalties for technical breaches of farming, food safety, banking and retail laws would save the criminal justice system ...
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Defra lawyers face savage job cuts
A government department is to make 42 lawyers redundant, the Gazette has learned, as solicitors warn of more job losses to come in public sector legal teams. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is to make 40% of its 87 solicitors and 18 ...
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Lloyds Banking Group axes 2,500 firms from conveyancing panel
About 2,500 firms have been axed from Lloyds Banking Group’s conveyancing panel in its recent cull, the Law Society has estimated. Over the last month the group, which includes Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Birmingham Midshires, has reviewed its panel membership to remove firms ...
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Danish insurer enters PII market
A Danish insurance company has entered the solicitors professional indemnity insurance (PII) market to provide cover to small and medium-sized law firms, as the 1 October renewals deadline approaches. Copenhagen-based Alpha Insurance A/S will issue PII policies for firms of between one and 25 partners, in ...
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LSC reveals winners of Manchester CLAS contracts
The Legal Services Commission and Manchester City Council have commissioned Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau in conjunction with Shelter, local law firms Glaisyers and Platt Halpern, and Cheetham Hill Advice Centre to run Manchester’s new Community Legal Advice Service. The service will operate from six sites and ...
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Treasury attacked over equality impact of budget
HM Treasury has missed the deadline for responding to papers filed by a gender equality pressure group seeking a judicial review of the coalition’s first budget, it emerged last week. The Fawcett Society is claiming that the Treasury failed to fulfil its gender equality duty when ...
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Law firms plan to escalate LSC tender challenge nationwide
The Legal Services Commission can expect a ‘nationwide’ challenge to the lawfulness of its recent tenders, according to an alliance of 12 family firms which plan to take the fight to the agency. The firms, based in London, Exeter and Hull, all failed to get new ...
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FCO decision on human rights report 'puts businesses at risk'
The Law Society has warned that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) decision to cease publishing its annual report on human rights abuses worldwide could mean that British businesses will be exposed to an increased ‘risk factor’ overseas. In 1997 the then foreign secretary Robin Cook ...
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Legal executives seek right to conduct reserved probate work
Will-writers and legal executives could be given the right to apply for grants of probate by next March, under powers being sought by the Institute of Legal Executives. However, the Law Society has warned that the move could give ‘false comfort’ to consumers. ...
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Law Society commences court action over tender process
The Law Society is taking the Legal Services Commission to court seeking a declaration that the family tender process and outcome are ‘unlawful’, and asking for a suspension of the new contracts. Chancery Lane has today formally commenced judicial review proceedings of the LSC’s recent tender ...
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High Court judge brands welfare tender ‘irrational’
A High Court judge has today branded some of the criteria used by the Legal Services Commission in its recent social welfare tender ‘utterly absurd and totally irrational’. Mr Justice Collins also said the ‘tick-box’ exercise adopted by the LSC was not appropriate for tendering to ...
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Law Commission consults on criminal law reforms
The Law Commission has proposed a cut in the number of criminal offences for regulatory breaches. In a consultation published today, the commission said using civil penalties for technical breaches of farming, food safety, banking and retail laws would save the criminal justice system £11m a ...
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Hammonds in talks on transatlantic merger
City firm Hammonds and US firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey are discussing a merger that would create a 1,300-lawyer transatlantic practice with combined revenues of more than £400m. In a statement released this afternoon, the firms said that they are ‘evaluating the possibility’ of a tie-up, ...
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Indemnity insurer ‘breaking FSA rules’, says Chancery Lane
Insurers are breaching Financial Services Authority (FSA) rules by telling law firms to accept professional indemnity insurance (PII) quotes within seven days, the Law Society has said.
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High street firms ‘fear for the future’
The future of many high street firms could be in jeopardy unless they adopt a more customer-friendly approach to business, according to a new study. Some 87% of lawyers in sole practitioner and small firms already fear for their future, the analysis found, with many ...
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Immigration cap will ‘strangle’ City law firms, Chancery Lane warns
The government’s plan to impose an annual cap on immigration will ‘strangle’ City law firms, the Law Society warned today. The cap will ‘severely restrict’ firms’ ability to conduct overseas work; prevent firms from attracting overseas lawyers and moving employees to London from their international offices; ...
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Lloyds’ hidden agenda
Despite 26 years of good service, we have recently suffered the blow of withdrawal of our conveyancing panel membership by Lloyds Banking Group. We are obviously taking immediate steps to seek the rescission of this decision. It is important for firms to appreciate ...
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Duty solicitors are not ‘overpaid’
I was surprised to see Mr Edwards’ claim that many duty solicitors are ‘overpaid’. When one considers the hours worked, experience gained and education obtained in the pursuit of duty solicitor status, duty solicitors are in the main underpaid. If one compares a duty solicitor’s salary to that ...