Latest news – Page 907
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News
Bitter will to swallow
Readers may be aware of a new business model being launched where the legal profession is encouraged to ‘sign up’ to check online computer-generated wills for free. For more complex wills, the lawyer is able to charge for the service – but at no point would the lawyer meet the ...
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Rights slight
I write in response to Roger Smith’s article stating that readers of the Daily Mail ‘are hysterically opposed to human rights’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 12). This is an insult to any Mail reader. I read the Mail and anyone who knows me will tell you that it is ...
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Firms shut as cover crisis deepens
High street firms are being forced to close because they cannot afford to pay vastly increased professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums, while hundreds more are destined to end up in the assigned risks pool (ARP), the Gazette has learned.
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LSB chief pledges separation of powers with the Society
Ensuring robust separation between the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority will be a priority of the Legal Services Board, its chairman has promised. In a speech at the Law Society last week, David Edmonds highlighted the weight he places on the proper independence both of ...
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Tory HIPs rethink
The Conservative Party may abandon its pledge to scrap home information packs (HIPs) if elected, their housing special adviser hinted last week. Owen Inskip, adviser to shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, told the National Conveyancing Congress in London that the party’s plan to abolish the controversial ...
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Anger at ‘propaganda’ of MoJ family courts report
Activists have dismissed a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) commissioned survey into family courts’ handling of contact orders as ‘propaganda’. The survey of 11 courts, by Oxford University’s Centre for Family Law and Policy, found that the perception that courts awarded non-resident parents little or no contact ...
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Battle won
Five retired Gurkhas and a serviceman’s widow have successfully challenged an immigration policy preventing Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from settling in the UK. Tuesday’s judgment by Mr Justice Blake at the High Court alluded to the Military Covenant, an agreement between servicemen and the nation to honour debts of ...
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Ghana’s black gold to lure lawyers
Oil and gas-rich Ghana could provide a wealth of opportunities for legal experts as it upgrades its legal and physical infrastructure, according to members of a lawyers’ trade mission. The mission, led by the Law Society’s International Division, met Ghanaian lawyers, government and industry figures ...
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Registry to shed staff
The Land Registry of England and Wales is offering redundancy terms to around 1,250 staff, prompting fears that an ‘exodus of experience’ could harm standards of service once the property market recovers. Revenue at the self-funding agency has fallen sharply in recent months with the collapse ...
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Funding freedom plea
Support remains sharply divided on whether solicitors should be free to contract with clients in whatever way they want – including agreeing to contingency fees. At a debate last week between leading practitioners, third-party funder Susan Dunn said contingency fees should be an option to ...
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Diversity charter threat
The Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) has threatened to withdraw its support for the Law Society’s diversity charter, amid fears it will be watered down. The scheme, initiated by SAL and supported by BT, is modelled on a project in the US. It aims to ...
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CPA plans huge India expansion
CPA Global, the legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider, is to expand its 450-strong team of lawyers in India nearly eight-fold, in response to growing demand from Europe and the US. The company expects to employ 3,500 lawyers in India by 2011, the Gazette has learned. The ...
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In-house lawyers ‘bullied’ by firms
Corporate counsel are being bullied into retaining panels of law firms despite conflicts of interest, a conference heard last week. Counsel at the C5 Reducing Legal Costs event reported taking the decision to drop law firms from their panel because those firms were simultaneously advising competitors – but some said ...
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Nuclear
City firm Lovells advised French energy giant EDF on its £11bn acquisition of British Energy Group, the UK nuclear power generator. Lovells also advised Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas in connection with the deal. Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised British Energy, while US firm White & Case advised the ...
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Law and orders
The abolition of powers of arrest in relation to non-molestation orders can leave the victim questioning the whole process.
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Putting clients first
In her article about mediation, Kate Durcan writes: ‘One might think there is a conflict between being a lawyer, where the object is to generate fee income, and conducting mediation, where the goal is to seek early resolution and save costs. Not so, say lawyer-mediators.’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, ...
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Trial by ordeal
The letter from Kat Gibson, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division, concerning newly qualified solicitors appearing in court interested me (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 9). In the old days we were not given any training in this field. However, for my sins, I was asked to do a trial ...
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Gaining experience
I was articled in 1952 to a local advocate in Hastings. Where he went, I went, and I was lucky enough to hear on a regular basis high-quality advocacy from fine solicitors, some very good barristers and, on occasion at Assizes, high-quality leaders. One listened and learned. ...
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Left for dead
Following last week’s letter bemoaning the use of the verb ‘to gift’, I wonder how many of your readers also use the verb ‘to dead’. We routinely ‘dead’ our files, and on a recent management training course a number of non-lawyers were highly amused at this concept, and wondered if ...
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Market chaos sparks client money fears
The security of billions of pounds of client money held in UK banks was called into question this week following the apparent near-collapse of HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender. Law firms across the UK reported being inundated with calls from clients worried that cash pooled in ...