Latest news – Page 851
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News
Liability fears over bad advice
Loopholes in partnership law could allow investors to sue individual hedge fund managers - and possibly partners in law firms - for giving bad investment advice, according to a former hedge fund chief operating officer. Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, managing director of London law firm Lussan, ...
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Starmer wades into TV trials debate
The new director of public prosecutions has reignited the debate over televising criminal trials, saying cameras in court would ‘bring a breath of fresh air’ to proceedings. In an interview for Channel 4 News, Keir Starmer said: ‘The more the public know about the criminal justice ...
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QC process seen as biased
Solicitors believe that the new process for appointing QCs is still biased in favour of barristers, according to an online survey carried out by the Law Society. Of the 170 who responded to the survey, more than 70% felt the award of silk should be ...
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Solicitors need bench support
The Lord Chief Justice (pictured) has urged the profession to support solicitors who want to pursue a judicial career to help more make it to the High Court bench. Of the 110 High Court judges in post as of April 2008, only one was a solicitor. ...
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No action against ‘touting’ libel firms
The Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority have said they will not act on an MP’s call in Parliament to investigate the alleged ‘active touting’ for business by libel law firms. Denis MacShane (pictured), Labour MP for Rotherham, made the allegation in December. He told an ...
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LCS 'takes too long' on coal health compensation cases
A snapshot of coal health compensation cases shows almost two-thirds of cases handled by the Legal Complaints Service are taking too long. However the audit, carried out by complaints commissioner Zahida Manzoor, shows ‘significant improvements’ have been made, with 99% of the sample audited ...
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Transfer request
Banks have begun asking top law firms to transfer their client accounts to them from other banks in order to secure lending facilities, as some partners move their private accounts abroad to gain full protection from bank collapses.
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More law centres face closure as funding fears increase
Six more law centres are on the critical list and will struggle to survive 2009 as they try to plug funding gaps, according to the Law Centres Federation. Six law centres closed in 2008, leaving 54 centres to cover England and Wales. A similar number ...
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Clifford Chance signs best friends deal with Indian firm
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance has signed a ‘best friends’ deal with Indian law firm AZB and hinted at a possible future merger just days after an Indian court laid the foundations for liberalisation of the market. The best friends deal was signed with the intention ...
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Employment tribunals apply the law without fear or favour
I refer to the letter from Martin Mears (see [2008] Gazette, 11 December, 10). It is titled ‘Tribunal judges must be impartial.’ They certainly are. The advertisement that appeared in the Gazette on 4 December was an error on the part of the Judicial Appointments Commission; Mears’ letter simply compounds ...
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Access denied
The item on multiple age-discrimination claims (see [2008] Gazette, 4 December, 4) seems slightly one-sided.
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Employment tribunals are not biased
The employment tribunals are not biased and the Judicial Appointments Commission is not politicised (see [2008] Gazette, 11 December, 10). The information pack we have sent to every applicant for these posts says: ‘The purpose of this judicial office is to administer justice in the Employment ...
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Application rejection fee mistake
I am writing to alert the profession to the fact that the Office of the Public Guardian is rejecting applications and recharging the £150 fee if any mistake – no matter how small or obvious – has been made in part 1 of a lasting power of attorney.
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Reporting suspicion
You recently reported that the Serious Organised Crime Agency wants solicitors to make more reports on suspected money laundering after a fall of 40% in the number of reports made (see [2008] Gazette, 20 November, 3).
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Firms a step closer to setting up in India
The Indian government has taken an important legislative step toward opening up the country’s legal market to foreign firms. Last month the Indian parliament finally passed a bill allowing the formation of limited liability partnerships. Originally introduced in January 2006, the bill itself will not ...
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Costs-capping order appeal
The High Court will next week hear an appeal against what is thought to be the first costs-capping order made against a defendant. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly had estimated its costs of defending an action brought by Susan James over alleged side-effects of the drug Zyprexa ...
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Legal profession ‘snapshot’
An official quarterly report on the state of the legal profession is to be released for the first time this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed this week. The ‘snapshot’ will include the number of firms opening and closing and the number of solicitors practising ...
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Forced retirement backing
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has rejected the ‘stereotyped assumption’ that law firm partners will underperform by the time they reach the age of 65. However, the ruling otherwise backed a compulsory retirement age in a discrimination claim brought by former senior partner Leslie Seldon against Kent firm Clarkson Wright & ...
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Dire warning for conveyancers
Survival will be the ‘name of the game’ in conveyancing over the next year, as practitioners forecast falling sales and more job cuts, with medium-sized firms hardest hit. Peter Rodd, chairman of the Law Society’s property section, predicted ‘a dire market without any sign of improvement ...
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Criminal defence lawyers call for all police forces to provide interpreters
Criminal defence lawyers have launched a campaign to ensure all police forces provide qualified interpreters to non-English speaking detainees at police stations. A 2007 national agreement on the use of interpreters – drawn up by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform in consultation with the Association ...