Latest news – Page 831
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Justice minister steps down pending expenses probe
Justice minister Shahid Malik stepped down today amid the furore over MPs’ expenses. This morning, The Daily Telegraph claimed that Malik paid discounted rent at his main home in Dewsbury – which he pays for himself – of less than £100 per week, while at the ...
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Doctor in profit
Derek Peedell casts light on a substantial issue in the governance of the NHS (see [2009] Gazette, 7 May, 11). GPs are publicly funded to meet the entire cost of the provision of GP services to their NHS patients.
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Direct criticism
John Sirodcar makes reference to my review of certain CDS Direct files (see [2009] Gazette, 7 May, 11). He attributes a quote to me which is not in fact entirely correct.
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Closing the gap
I write in response to the comments made by Desmond Browne QC, the chairman of the Bar Council, about the impact of fees on black and minority ethnic (BME) and female lawyers (see [2009] Gazette, 30 April, 3).
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Bar considers action on ‘threat’ posed by solicitor-advocates
The Bar Council has set up a working group to tackle what it calls unfair competition from solicitor-advocates for Crown Court work.
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Radical reforms mooted in Jackson civil justice review
Radical reform of civil justice is on the agenda in the wake of Lord Justice Jackson’s preliminary report on costs. Greater use of fixed costs, an end to recoverability, a conditional legal aid fund (CLAF), a crackdown on referral fees and changes to the cost-shifting rule ...
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QC appointment review rejects proposals for radical change
The former head of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel has rejected Law Society proposals that would have increased the number of solicitors eligible to apply. In a report published last week, Sir Duncan Nichol said that widening access to the current award ‘would run a serious ...
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Research shows mentally ill more likely to be victims of crime
Adults with severe mental health problems are almost 25% more likely to be victims of crime than the general population, a report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice has revealed.
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NOMS IT under fire from MPs
The director general of the National Offender Management Service, Phil Wheatley, was taken to task by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last week over the service’s IT programme. Edward Leigh MP, the committee’s chairman, told Wheatley that a National Audit Office report on his ...
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France sets out agenda for OLC
Improving consumer confidence in the legal profession will be high on the agenda of the first chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, Elizabeth France, as work starts on how the organisation will be run. ‘Change is needed to improve confidence in the system,’ France ...
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Hunt condemns unregulated legal services providers
The peer tasked by Chancery Lane with reviewing legal regulation has hit out at what he described as the ‘great unwashed’ – unregulated advisers who provide services that solicitors ‘are much better qualified to provide’. Lord Hunt of Wirral was speaking in Manchester ...
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Best value tendering will drive firms out of business, say lawyers
Criminal practitioners have slammed the Legal Services Commission’s ‘reckless’ plans to test best value tendering, saying they will force many firms in the pilot areas out of business. The LSC is consulting on proposals to test the new method of commissioning services in police stations and ...
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Council replaces legal post with head of corporate governance
A county council is replacing the role of head of legal and democratic services with a head of corporate governance as part of a series of measures to make £1.4m in efficiency savings. The move, by Northamptonshire County Council, is likely to attract widespread interest ...
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QualitySolicitors demonstrate outside Royal Courts of Justice
QualitySolicitors.com, the legal marketing brand, marked its launch this week with a symbolic demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice against the prospect of supermarkets offering legal services – so called ‘Tesco law’. Participants shouted ‘Say no to Tesco law’ and handed out cans of ...
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New guidance for child care and supervision cases
The Ministry of Justice is drawing up new guidelines to help local authority lawyers tackle problems faced during child care cases. The Gazette has learned that new guidance is intended to make the Public Law Outline (PLO), introduced in April last year, more effective and ...
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Law Society warning over Registry’s early completion plan
Land Registry plans to streamline the completion process will increase solicitors’ costs and make conveyancing less efficient, the Law Society has warned. The new ‘early completion’ practice applies where an application for a discharge of whole has been received along with other applications, but ...
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Jackson proposes Commercial Court cost reforms
Costs rules for high-value complex commercial cases could be amended after the judge in charge of a wide-ranging review of civil litigation costs opened the door for reforms. Despite opposition from the Commercial Court Users Committee (CCUC), which is carrying out its own review of ...
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Madoff fraud prompts rush of securities lawsuits
Convicted tycoon Bernard Madoff’s ponzi fraud spawned 30% of securities lawsuits worldwide in the first quarter of 2009, research has indicated. Of the 169 new securities lawsuits filed in Q1 this year, 50 related to the Madoff fraud, according to business data company Advisen. ...
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Bids for nuclear development sites, mining rights and property sales
Going nuclear: Magic circle firm Freshfields advised energy company E.ON on its successful bid for nuclear development sites in Oldbury and Wylfa. E.ON, alongside joint venture partner RWE, acquired the land at a Nuclear Decommissioning Authority auction, where three sites were sold for ...
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Criminal justice system ‘institutionally sexist’
Women suffer widespread discrimination at all levels of the criminal justice system, including in the legal profession and judiciary, according to a report launched at the Law Society today by equality campaigners the Fawcett Society.