Latest news – Page 908
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News
Forty per cent of conveyancing firms lay off staff
Four out of ten conveyancing firms have cut staff numbers because of the fall in home sales, according to a survey by search provider Searchflow published this week. The poll, seen exclusively by the Gazette, revealed that 40% of firms have cut their headcount in response ...
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Investigation into lawyer assassinations
Colombia is setting up a special prosecution team dedicated to investigating the assassination of human rights lawyers following talks between government officials and a delegation of high-profile UK legal professionals.
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AIG bailout wards off PII catastrophe
The US Government’s $85bn (£48bn) bailout of insurer AIG has averted a catastrophe in the volatile solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market, brokers have said. However, some reported that a minority of clients remained wary of obtaining AIG cover, and that the period between AIG’s share ...
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EU evidence exchange warning
The free exchange of forensic evidence across European Union (EU) member states could result in miscarriages of justice unless defence lawyers are properly trained to challenge expert evidence from different jurisdictions, a conference in London heard this week.
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NHS negligence cover comes under scrutiny
Pressure is mounting on the government to explain the relationship between the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), which pays compensation to victims of clinical negligence, and after-the-event (ATE) insurer FirstAssist. In a letter to health secretary Alan Johnson and justice secretary Jack Straw – seen by the ...
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Will writers attack comparison site
Will writers have reacted with alarm to plans by a price-comparison website to enter the legal services market. The Society of Will Writers this week warned that an online match-making service offered by the Paaleads.com venture could be ‘devastating to the professionalism’ of the industry. In ...
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Met safety deposit box raid slammed
A solicitor representing owners of safety deposit boxes raided by police has spoken out against what he says is excessive use of powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Lawrence Kelly, of London solicitors Lawrence Stephens, claimed the authorities are using warrants to trawl ...
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Disability on firms' radar
A national charity has launched an action plan to help law students with disabilities overcome barriers to pursuing a legal career such as going to the ‘wrong sort of university’. Some 21,350 first-year undergraduates declared a disability in 2007, with law students making up 12% ...
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Death row execution 'inhuman'
The execution of the US’s longest-serving death row prisoner, Jack Alderman, has been condemned as cruel and inhumane by those who fought to overturn the sentence. As the Gazette went to press last week, a court granted a last-minute stay of execution for Alderman, who had ...
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Training must top the agenda
Newly qualified solicitors should not use clients as guinea pigs to gain advocacy experience. I was pleased to read that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backtracked over plans for automatic rights of audience for solicitors (see [2008] Gazette, 11 September, 2). ...
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When grammar 'gifts' us a lesson
Having read the latest letter about poor grammar, I could not resist raising my pet hate (see [2008] Gazette, 11 September, 9). When did ‘gift’ become a verb? Do non-lawyers talk about ‘gifting’ a house, as almost all private client practitioners now do? ...
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CDS Direct advice was appropriate
I do not agree with Matthew Coxall’s view of the advice provided by CDS Direct (see [2008] Gazette, 4 September, 9). In his letter, Mr Coxall questioned the advice provided by CDS Direct to his client. I have investigated the case concerned and I am ...
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High praise for a past president
What a refreshing, forthright article from Martin Mears (see [2008] Gazette, 11 September, 8). It reminds me why he is one of the few Law Society presidents who was actually elected by his fellow solicitors and why I voted for him. ...
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Racism: courage in the line of fire
I refer to Martin Mears’s trenchant dismissal of allegations of racism at the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Mr Mears treats the peddlers of these allegations and the powerful organisations at their back with more respect than they deserve. But it would be ...
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Firms face assigned risk pool threat
A far greater number of solicitors could end up in the assigned risks pool (ARP) and face paying up to half their fee income in solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums as the crisis in the market deepens. Industry sources have predicted that more small firms ...
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DLA Piper in the Middle East push
National firm DLA Piper has tripled its headcount in the Middle East as part of a huge push into the region and has plans for further expansion over the next two months, the Gazette can reveal. The firm, which had around 50 lawyers working in the ...
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Costs-capping power for courts
Courts will have formal powers to make costs-capping orders under changes proposed by the civil procedure rule committee. The courts have been developing their costs-capping jurisdiction, most notably in personal injury and defamation cases, and the consultation issued last week is largely an attempt to codify ...
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Lawyers blamed for negligence fees rise
Clinical negligence practitioners have hit back at claims they are fuelling a‘compensation culture’ by charging too much, after it emerged that the NHS’s bill for patients’ lawyers has more than doubled in the last four years. The NHS paid out £90.7m in costs to claimant solicitors ...
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JAC 'can change history'
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) ‘has the potential to alter the historical pattern of under-representation of certain groups among the judiciary’, but a broader range of people need to apply, the Employment Tribunals president said last week. Speaking at an event hosted by the Society of ...
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'Offer of amends' could lead to fewer libel cases at trial
The settlement of a high-profile libel case between supermarket giant Tesco and The Guardian newspaper will encourage the use of ‘offers of amends’ as an alternative to trials, libel lawyers said this week. Tesco Stores Ltd had sued Guardian News & Media Ltd ...