Latest news – Page 816
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Diversity data
A letter in the last issue of the Gazette questioned why the SRA was sending out a diversity questionnaire to solicitors asking about ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and other key information (see [2009] Gazette, 6 August, 7).
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Cutting out the middle man
The congratulatory report on claims management regulation has once again steered attention away from the rapidly increasing number of claims management companies to issues surrounding regulation of solicitors’ responsibilities (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July, 3).
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Legal executives seek litigation and probate rights
A scheme allowing legal executives to set up their own law firms offering litigation and probate services has been put to the government. The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) has applied for the power to grant members civil and family litigation and advocacy rights, as well ...
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Pro bono work rises due to recession
There has been a surge in pro bono work provided by lawyers as a result of the recession, figures have suggested. The increase stems from a combination of a greater need for pro bono work and the fact that some ...
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Pilot scheme to cut libel costs
Efforts to control the costs of defamation actions will step up this autumn with the launch of a year-long costs budgeting pilot. Under the scheme at the Royal Courts of Justice and High Court in Manchester, parties will be required to discuss with each other and ...
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Small firms suffer as PI premiums soar
Solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums have shot up by 50% in a handful of cases as early reports suggest that the renewals season is already proving difficult for small law firms. PII brokers and experts said that some small firms seeking early renewals have already ...
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Solicitors condemn BVT pilot over 'unrealistic' timescale
Solicitors in the best value tendering pilot areas have written a hard-hitting letter to the Legal Services Commission condemning the ‘unrealistic and perilous’ timescale for the pilot, which will spell ‘disaster’ for firms. Half of the 141 firms with criminal contracts in Avon and Somerset and ...
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Bar appeals to Lord Justice Jackson for referral fee ban
Lord Justice Jackson has been urged to recommend a ban or cap on referral fees as part of his review of civil justice costs. In its response to Jackson’s consultation, the Bar Council said referral fees ‘led to bad service and should be abolished’, noting that ...
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Advice for Life charity faced pressure from LSC before closure
Advice for Life, the collapsed parent charity of East Anglia’s two law centres, was struggling to repay funds to the Legal Services Commission before it went bust, it has emerged. Advice for Life’s closure caused Cambridge Law Centre and Huntingdon Law Centre to close for good at the end of ...
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Huge vote of confidence for conveyancing solicitors
Conveyancing solicitors were given a resounding vote of confidence by the public this week as unpublished research seen by the Gazette revealed ‘stratospheric’ levels of satisfaction among consumers. Some 93% of ...
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ABS 'dominance' could push smaller firms out of market
The advent of alternative business structures (ABSs) could bring about a ‘point of no return’ whereby smaller firms are pushed out of the market by powerful new players, a legal thinktank has claimed. The College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute has warned that, by the ...
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Funding cuts proposed for police station work
The Ministry of Justice has announced a consultation on funding cuts for police station and Crown court work aimed at ‘rebalancing’ the £2bn legal aid budget in favour of civil help. The reforms outlined in the consultation paper include reducing the fees paid for police station ...
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Nationwide signs up to probate protocol
The Law Society has this week published a new joint protocol with the Nationwide Building Society to assist in the winding up of estates. The protocol is the first such agreement to be reached with a building society, although similar arrangements are already in place with ...
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Nationwide signs up to probate protocol
The Law Society has this week published a new joint protocol with the Nationwide Building Society to assist in the winding up of estates. The protocol is the first such agreement to be reached with a building society, although similar arrangements are already in place with ...
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Sole practitioners axed from Britannia/Co-operative panel
Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), which has recently merged with Britannia Building Society, is to axe 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel, it has emerged. The Law Society has urged the CFS not to remove the large number of sole practitioners who had been on Britannia’s ...
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Building society hit by £41m mortgage fraud
Solicitors and other professionals have been implicated in £41m of mortgage fraud which plunged the mutual Chelsea Building Society deep into the red in the first half, it emerged today. In its interim accounts Chelsea said that the mortgage fraud, perpetrated between 2006 and 2008, involved ...
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More job cuts at Burges Salmon
South-west firm Burges Salmon is to axe up to four property lawyers and up to 27 support staff in its second redundancy round of the year. The firm said that redundancy pay will be ‘more generous’ than the statutory minimum. In March, Burges Salmon let 18 ...
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PII boost for small firms as XL enters market
Sole practitioners and small law firms have received a boost ahead of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals season, with news that insurance giant XL will provide them with cover. As revealed by the Gazette last week, XL, a new entrant to the solicitors’ PII market, ...
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Bar Standards Board warning over ABSs
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has said it would be ‘wrong’ to allow barristers to join alternative business structures (ABSs) without evidence of whether all forms of the new structure are ‘compatible with the regulatory objectives’ of the Legal Services Act 2007, or necessary for the benefit of consumers. ...
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Britannia under fire from Chancery Lane
The Law Society has criticised Britannia Building Society and The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) for failing to engage with it after the newly merged building society moved to axe 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel. After being advised last week of the decision to ...