Latest news – Page 766
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News
New ombudsman service Is ‘good value for money’
The new legal ombudsman service set up to investigate and resolve complaints made by users of legal services will open on 6 October this year. Established by the Office for Legal Complaints and based in Birmingham, the service will replace the Law Society-run Legal Complaints Service ...
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Inexperienced firms seek help for mental health work
Legal aid cuts have forced firms with no mental health experience to bid for mental health contracts – and they are now urgently seeking to poach staff to enable them to do the work, recruiters have told the Gazette. Toby Williamson, director at national recruiters G2 ...
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Insolvency practitioners overpaid £15m a year
Insolvency practitioners are overpaid £15m a year because unsecured creditors are unable to rein in their fees, the Office of Fair Trading reported last week. In its study on the market for corporate insolvency, the OFT recommended that the government create an independent complaints-handling body to ...
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Satellites, lingerie, mobile phones and entertainment attractions
Satellite finance: City firm Herbert Smith advised Gazprom Space Systems, a subsidiary of energy company Gazprom, on guaranteeing the financing of two telecoms satellites, Yamal 401 and Yamal 402, due to be launched in 2011. Magic circle firm Linklaters advised a consortium of ...
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Rule of law ‘in disarray’ in Zimbabwe
Extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and torture continue unabated in Zimbabwe despite a 22-month power-sharing agreement between the country’s two main political parties, a delegation of legal bodies reported this week. The delegation's report, A Place in the Sun, looks at the state of the rule of ...
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Call for EU to tighten intellectual property protection
Pressure is mounting on EU lawmakers to improve protection for trade secrets and intellectual property (IP) rights, after two business lobbies called for stricter enforcement. A coalition of seven international corporations told the Gazette this week that it has called on the European Commission to afford ...
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Lord Lester demands 'urgent action' on CFA 'scandal'
Libel reformer Lord Lester has called on the government to take ‘urgent action’ on the ‘scandal’ of 100% success fees charged by lawyers working on conditional fee agreements (CFAs) in defamation actions. The barrister and Liberal Democrat peer asked justice minister Lord McNally last week ...
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Lawyers warn that court closures could threaten access to justice
Lawyers have warned that government proposals to close nearly a third of the courts in England and Wales could threaten access to justice and increase pressure on legal aid practitioners. In a consultation launched last week, the Courts Service proposed shutting 157 out of 530 ...
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Acoustic 'youth dispersal' devices ‘a danger to children's hearing'
Acoustic ‘youth dispersal’ devices are a danger to children’s hearing and should be banned immediately, the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe ruled unanimously last week. The devices, designed to be audible only to people under the age of 20, are installed in public places such as shopping centres, ...
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Halliwells becomes biggest casualty of the recession
One of the UK’s biggest regional law firms is expected to disappear from the market shortly, after the economic downturn claimed its biggest victim so far in the legal sector. As the Gazette went to press, Manchester-headquartered Halliwells and its staff were in limbo as ...
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Profits surge as A&O rides out recession
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy increased average profits per equity partner (PEP) by 10% in 2009/10 on the back of falling revenues, the firm reported today. The first of the magic circle to report full-year financials in 2010, Allen & Overy announced PEP up to ...
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Cuts on the agenda of family justice review
The Ministry of Justice has launched a ‘comprehensive review’ of the family justice system, appointing a panel of experts to hear evidence on how the system can improve. However, the panel chair has admitted a principal catalyst for the review is the government’s desire to make spending cuts. ...
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90% ‘would recommend their solicitor to a friend’
Nine out of 10 people would recommend their solicitor to a friend, according to independent research commissioned by the Law Society. Of 1,011 people questioned by research agency GfK NOP, 505 said they had a solicitor to whom they would go for advice on a legal ...
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Halliwells on the brink of administration
The economic meltdown is set to claim its biggest casualty yet in the legal sector, with Halliwells hovering on the brink of administration. Talks are under way today to transfer the bulk of the top 50 firm’s assets to Liverpool-based Hill Dickinson, though there is no ...
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PII renewal fury
The annual renewal of our professional indemnity policies is approaching. I contacted our broker to assess what treats might be in store for us. He indicates that it is early days, but that we should budget for a substantial increase – maybe as much as 100%.The reasons for this are: ...
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CPS lawyer pleads guilty to bribe charge
A Crown Prosecution Service lawyer has admitted taking a share of a £20,000 bribe to drop a case. Sarfraz Ibrahim, a barrister who was the head of the advocacy unit at Gwent CPS, yesterday (Monday) admitted corruption, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public ...
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Solicitor discrimination
I was unable recently to act on behalf of a client in a conveyancing transaction because my firm was already acting on behalf of her seller. The client instructed a local licensed conveyancer to act on her behalf. On speaking with her conveyancer a few days later, I was reminded ...
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In defence of defenders
There is a belief to some extent within the profession, and to a greater extent without, that those who practise criminal law are not of the same standard or calibre as solicitors who do not. From the profession’s point of view, this is because we rely ...
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In the real world
I wonder whether your anonymous solicitor in the 27 May issue has any idea of the overheads of a solicitor's practice? As a sole fee-earner and without being burdened with rent, I can say that the overheads of my practice of many years approximate £100,000 per ...
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Law shops are the future
So the Law Society is to spend £422,000 telling people what they already know, namely, that they can turn to a solicitor for legal advice because solicitors are ‘qualified to answer’. Is this money well spent and properly targeted as far as the public and the ...