Latest news – Page 761
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News
End of the line for police station advice?
Cuts in the provision of legal aid are perhaps an inevitable if uncomfortable consequence of the economic mess that we find ourselves in. However, we now learn that justice secretary Ken Clarke’s new-found enthusiasm for keeping offenders out of the prison system is matched by contemplation of a plan to ...
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Confusion over slots for Criminal Defence Service duty rota
I have reached the end of my tether, with the help of the Legal Services Commission Criminal Defence Service. I realised that the end was in sight when I visited its website on 12 July. The duty rota for our scheme had been published on ...
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Outcry over erosion of rule of law in Maldives
A former Maldives attorney general has called on the Law Society to lead a mission to the country to assess the erosion of the rule of law, as judges are assaulted, courts suspended, and citizens’ rights ‘crushed under foot’, he claimed. Dr Hassan Saeed told the ...
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Mental health lawyers concerned over tender contracts
Mental health lawyers have expressed concern at the impact of the Legal Services Commission’s recent tender process as national firm Duncan Lewis seeks to recruit 28 mental health lawyers under a new consultancy model to fulfil its contracts. Duncan Lewis, an established legal aid provider in ...
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Halliwells administrator’s cash management warning
Professional firms must pay ‘far greater attention to cash management’ following the break-up of north-west firm Halliwells, the firm’s administrator warned last week. A deal to sell Halliwells’ Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield operations to three former rivals was completed last week, and Halliwells has now been ...
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New PII market entrant
A new insurer has entered the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society disclosed last week.
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Coal miners pursue law firms over ‘undersettled’ compensation
The first known court actions against law firms for alleged undersettlement of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims will begin preliminary hearings in mid-August, the Gazette has learned. A number of defendant firms have already settled out of court. Oldham County Court is due to hold ...
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Family law supplier base ‘decimated’ by LSC tender
The family law supplier base has been ‘decimated’ by the ‘shock’ outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for civil legal aid work, lawyers groups alleged this week. The Law Society and Legal Aid Practitioners Group said member feedback indicated that around half of firms that ...
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Lord chief justice defends trial by jury
The lord chief justice emphasised the importance of trial by jury last week as the Court of Appeal overturned two High Court decisions that trials could proceed without a jury. Sir Igor Judge said that judge-alone trials should only proceed ‘as a last resort’. ...
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Personal injury lawyers issue warning over CFA reform
Personal injury lawyers warned that the government was taking ‘a step backwards’ this week as it announced that it will consult on Lord Justice Jackson’s plans for reform of the way lawyers are paid in civil cases. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said the government will focus ...
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Solicitorsfromhell owner in second High Court libel action
The owner of website solicitorsfromhell.co.uk is facing a second High Court libel action, the Gazette has learned. The news comes as it emerged that website owner Rick Kordowski has been invited by the BBC to assist with an investigation into alleged sharp practices by solicitors as ...
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Law firms entitled to set compulsory retirement age
A former law firm partner who accused his firm of acting unlawfully by making him retire at 65 has lost his age discrimination case in the Court of Appeal. Leslie Seldon, now 69, a former civil litigation partner at Kent law firm Clarkson Wright Jakes (CWJ), ...
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Chancery Lane appoints chief assessors to lead best practice panels
The Law Society has begun the process of updating and reviewing its professional accreditation schemes with the appointment of three chief assessors. The new chief assessors are Law Society council member for child care law Christina Blacklaws, who will lead the children law panel; Stuart Barlow, ...
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City lawyer leads push for Indian market liberalisation
Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham, the sole UK law firm representative in the prime minister’s trade delegation to India, is expected to meet determined opposition from the country’s legal establishment to any attempt at opening up the market to foreign law firms.
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Lawyers 'optimistic' over legal services reform
Alternative business structures will bring more work for high street and other firms as the big brands educate the public that they need to make a will, solicitors have suggested in a recent report. However, practitioners also indicated that the cost of regulation is driving some ...
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Lloyds Banking Group to review conveyancing panel
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to review the criteria for membership of its conveyancing panels and reduce the number of firms it instructs using a ‘risk based’ model that it says will allow it to assess firms individually. The group, which includes Lloyds TSB; Halifax; Bank ...
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Government announces consultation on Jackson’s CFA reforms
No-win no-fee agreements will be the focus of a government consultation on Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for reforming civil litigation costs, the government announced today. In a written ministerial statement laid before parliament this morning, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said that the reform of conditional fee ...
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Insurers set to move into small firm market
Broker Marsh is in discussions with two major insurers to open their doors to two- and three-partner firms, it has said. At a press briefing last week, Janine Parker, head of solicitors’ professional indemnity, said that Marsh is ‘trying to put together a solution for two- ...
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Judiciary reprimanded for inappropriate comments
Twenty-eight judicial office holders were removed from office last year, a 12% rise on last year, and a further 18 resigned during conduct investigations, according to the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report published yesterday. Matters investigated by the OLC included one instance where a magistrate ...
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New insurer to enter PII market
A new insurer is to enter the solicitors’ professional indemnity market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society revealed today. Vision Underwriting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Limited (LMIE), which is a member of US Group Liberty ...