Latest news – Page 758
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News
Big is not better
On 10 February 2010 several large legal aid fims met Jack Straw and discussed the future. The MoJ has disclosed the names of the firms which attended but has indicated that the agenda and minutes are secret. I wonder if Tony Edwards' recent comment in the ...
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Unrealistic deadlines
I am primarily a conveyancing solicitor and have recently been dealing with a number of purchases whereby I have been given 10 working days to exchange contracts from receipt of the papers. Do solicitors not realise when placing these deadlines that the solicitor acting for purchasers needs to apply for ...
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Green nightmare
Department of Energy and Climate Change documents have reportedly revealed that the much-vaunted Carbon Reduction Scheme will be enforced against company executives and employees with the sanction of heavy fines and even imprisonment if there is perceived to be any failure to provide ‘assistance’ and so on. This revelation is ...
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What is going on?
I read with interest the interview with the new LSC chief executive Carolyn Downs. I am very sorry to hear that she is upset by what she sees as aggressive and adversarial behaviour on the part of legal aid providers. Unless she masters the facts of her brief rather than ...
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Everyone loses
I am a solicitor specialising in mental health law. Last week a hospital administrator asked me to represent a patient. It became apparent that the patient did not want me to represent her but wanted to use the solicitor who has represented her for the last seven years. This solicitor ...
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Cyril Glasser remembered
The Gazette’s report of the death of Professor Cyril Glasser did not allude to the fact that he was an outstanding and much-loved law teacher. Some of our members attended his seminars at University College London, where he delivered weekly lectures on civil procedure with specific ...
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Be careful what you wish for
The Gazette’s opinion of 5 August is headed Big bang theory. There is already a ‘big bang’ going on in the profession with regard to access to justice for clients.
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Law firm found to have broken ABS rules
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has found that a law firm overstepped the rules on alternative business structures in an arrangement with an outsourcer. Publishing an investigation into the agreement between Bradford, Glasgow and Newcastle firm Optima Legal and outsourcing company Capita, the SRA said that ‘while ...
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Cashier stole £1.6m from Midlands law firm
A former cashier at a Midlands law firm has admitted stealing £1.6m from her employer. Louise Martini from Solihull pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and theft of £1.6m from the accounts of Solihull and Shirley firm Williamson & Soden, in a hearing at Gloucester ...
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Call to SRA to loosen solicitor conduct rules
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to scrap the conduct provisions that prevent a solicitor from acting for both seller and purchaser, and for both lender and borrower in a conveyancing transaction. Responding to the SRA’s current consultation on its ...
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Social welfare warning over Manchester CLAS delay
The delayed timetable for Manchester’s new Community Legal Advice Service (CLAS) will make it impossible for some clients to obtain advice on social welfare problems, the Law Society has warned. The Legal Services Commission told the Gazette it will announce the bidders who have won contracts ...
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Gazette seeks nominations for Legal Personality of the Year Award
The Gazette is looking for legal professionals who are ‘influential, inspirational and in the public eye’ for its inaugural Gazette Legal Personality of the Year award, with just over a week to go until the deadline for nominations. The award aims to recognise those who have ...
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Firms seek to launch High Court challenge to LSC tender process
Some 31 firms across the north-east have joined forces in a bid to launch a High Court challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s recent family tender process, the Gazette has learned. The group of firms in Teesside, Durham and Newcastle, led by Helen Scourfield, associate at ...
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JAG plan for advocate reaccreditation 'every five years'
All criminal solicitor-advocates and barristers including Queen’s Counsel would face compulsory reaccreditation every five years under proposals put forward by the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) last week. The JAG was established by the Bar Standards Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and ILEX Professional Standards to develop ...
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Fox Hayes partners face £1m fine
Eight former partners of collapsed Leeds firm Fox Hayes have been held personally responsible for a fine of nearly £1m which was levied against the firm 18 months ago by the Financial Services Authority and remains unpaid. The upper financial services tribunal decided earlier this year ...
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Exclusive: Legal price comparison site set to break new ground
Law firms have been invited to register for free on what is claimed to be the first legal services price comparison website to give consumers instant details of costs. Nick Miller, who has practised in the Hull area as a high street practitioner for 22 years, ...
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Professional indemnity insurance boost for sole practitioners
Travelers, the second-largest professional indemnity insurer, has struck an exclusive agreement with Quinn’s former broker, Prime Professions, to offer cover to sole practitioners left in limbo by Quinn’s expected departure from the market. Quinn presently insures around 1,900 sole practitioners and about 1,000 small firms.
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Worse even than the LCS?
It may be difficult for many consumer-advising solicitors to imagine a service much more hostile to, and biased against, solicitors than that offered by the unqualified advisers at the Legal Complaints Service, forwhom ‘service-related complaint’ often appears to translate to ‘opportunity for solicitors to open their chequebooks, regardless of the ...
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Chancery Lane in legal bid over family tender
The Law Society is preparing a high court challenge against the Legal Services Commission’s family tender process. Chancery Lane today informed the LSC of its intention to seek a judicial review of the exercise, which has slashed the number of firms able to do family law ...
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Miners in court over alleged undersettlement of claims
The first known court actions against law firms for alleged undersettlement of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims began this morning. As first revealed by the Gazette in July, 18 cases will be heard today and tomorrow in Leeds County Court.