Latest news – Page 834
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HMRC enforcement head announces crackdown on tax havens
Drafters of tax avoidance schemes face greater scrutiny over the coming months as HM Revenue & Customs moves to close loopholes and bolster its disclosure regime, according to the head of the Revenue’s anti-tax avoidance group. Chris Tailby, a barrister who has directed the Revenue’s anti-avoidance ...
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Auditors seek cap on insolvency liability
The ‘big four’ accountancy firms are to lobby the government to further limit their liability as auditors in the event of corporate collapse, despite lawyers’ concerns that client companies would be ill-advised to agree to such a step. A spokeswoman for the Institute of Chartered ...
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Acquisitions, property development and dimond shares
Power stakes: City firm Herbert Smith advised Chinese power producer Huaneng Power International on acquiring a 55% stake in YangLiuQing Co-generation and a 41% stake in Beijing Co-generation from Huaneng International Power Development Corporation. The stakes are worth RMB2.35bn (£237m) combined.
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Minister questions legal aid priorities at 60th anniversary debate
Legal aid has ‘failed the very people it was set up to protect’ the minister in charge, told a debate hosted by the Law Society this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid Act. In the discussion, chaired by the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, ...
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More City firms wield the axe
Two big City firms have today announced another raft of redundancies, with a combined total of up to 50 lawyers and up to 115 support staff facing the axe. Berwin Leighton Paisner will cut up to 30 lawyers and up to 55 support staff, while CMS ...
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Land Registry overhauls registration procedure
The Land Registry is to apply a new ‘early completion’ practice from 3 August, to ensure that registration applications are completed as quickly as possible. The practice will apply to all situations where an application for a discharge of whole has been received with another ...
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Hunt to recommend pre-emptive role for the SRA
The review of legal regulation commissioned by the Law Society is likely to recommend that the Solicitors Regulation Authority carry out more pre-emptive and advisory visits to firms, especially those deemed to be ‘at risk’, its author has revealed. Lord Hunt of Wirral , the man ...
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Hundreds of Colombian lawyers murdered but no one prosecuted, report reveals
More than 400 Colombian lawyers have been murdered since 1991 but no one has been prosecuted for a single killing, a devastating report from 42 British lawyers who visited Colombia last year has revealed.
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US education provider in for BPP law school
BPP Holdings, which owns BPP Law School, announced today that it has received a buyout-approach from US education provider Apollo Global. BPP told the stock exchange that it has received a preliminary approach to purchase the company at 620p per share in cash, a 70% premium ...
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Green paper proposes role for local community in selecting judges
Aspiring district judges could have to win the endorsement of local community figures to secure appointment, under new proposals unveiled by the government today (29 April). The Ministry of Justice wants communities to work with the Judicial Appointments Commission in the ‘selection and deployment’ of district ...
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Regulator probes 10 firms over misleading debt claims
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating 10 firms for accepting business from claims management companies that have misled consumers about the prospects of getting debts written off. The regulator renewed an earlier warning about doing business with such introducers, following what it described as a ‘rash ...
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Hopes for tech and media bonanza unfounded, research shows
Hopes that a boom in technology, media and telecoms (TMT) activity could offset the slump in financial services and property may be unrealistic, new research has suggested. A survey published last week predicts a downturn in the TMT sector because of funding problems faced by businesses. ...
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Commission keeps it simple on legal aid contracts
The Legal Services Commission will allow only one model of consortium in the civil bid round for 2010 legal aid contracts, it has announced. The civil contracts tender process will not begin before September, but the LSC said it wanted to provide clarification and explanation of ...
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Bar thinktank proposes contingent legal aid fund
A contingent legal aid fund (CLAF) could ensure access to justice and help solve the legal aid crisis, according to a report published today by a Bar Council thinktank. The Policy Advisory Group, led by former bar chairman Guy Mansfield QC, proposes a self-funding, not-for-profit scheme ...
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Judge removed following OJC investigation
A district judge has been removed from office in the first judicial sacking since 1983. The Office for Judicial Complaints said yesterday that Margaret Short, who was appointed to the South East District Bench in 1993, has been removed following an investigation into ‘inappropriate behaviour’. A ...
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Thomas to chair tribunals council
Jack Straw, the lord chancellor and secretary of state, has appointed former solicitor Richard Thomas as the new chairman of the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (AJTC). Thomas is currently the information commissioner and deputy chairman of the Consumers Association. He has been appointed for four ...
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SRA transparency
A solicitor complained that six months after the Solicitors Regulation Authority had found two ‘minor infractions’, the firm’s partners were told by phone that they had been reprimanded and had to pay £500 in costs (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 9). The solicitor was unhappy the decision would be published ...
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Supreme effort
You were quite right to devote two pages to the importance of solicitors applying to join the judiciary (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 10-11).
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Out of service
I write further to your comment ‘Getting back on track’ regarding fast-track claims (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 8), and in particular road traffic accident cases.
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No bar to progress
Your article, ‘Bar regulator "in stone age" over LDPs’ focuses on the views expressed by a sole practitioner who claims that ‘the Bar Standards Board is "single-handedly frustrating government policy" by its tardiness in changing rules to permit barristers to join legal disciplinary practices’ (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 3). ...