Latest news – Page 581
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News
Radio ad censured
A Cardiff personal injury firm has been told not to repeat a radio advertisement that encouraged people to make it ‘the second person’ they call after an accident. The Advertising Standards Authority said Secure Law’s advertisement was irresponsible and carried the implicit message that listeners should make a claim irrespective ...
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Malthouse to speak at Society marketplace event
Kit Malthouse, deputy London mayor for business and enterprise, will be the closing speaker at the Law Society’s International Marketplace 2013 conference in London on 9 July. The all-day event will highlight business opportunities in providing legal services for emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each session will ...
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Clegg fuels rumours of cabinet split over legal aid
Signs of a cabinet split over the government’s legal aid proposals have emerged after the deputy prime minister voiced concern over the removal of client choice and the attorney general appeared to endorse barristers’ concerns that the changes would ‘damage the justice system’. The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday that ...
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Plans underline PCT failings
One of the main planks of the profession’s – sorry, ‘industry’s’ – opposition to price-competitive tendering is that, if implemented, ‘if you are accused of a crime, you will have to take the solicitor allocated to you’. This is the position already.
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Don’t access all areas
It is clear that fraud on the Land Registry is increasing and takes various forms. Recently, there were pictures in the newspapers of an incident in a London street. The number plates on cars in the pictures were pixellated. Fair enough, I thought, given that the number plate might be ...
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Chris Grayling: divide and rule
I read in the Gazette of 10 June that Grayling believes there is a straight choice between saving £220m from either criminal legal aid (budget £1bn) or the NHS (budget £109bn). This is classic divide-and-rule stuff that will not fool either lobby. But even on this faulty logic, he should ...
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Shortcomings of mediation
Mediation is ‘flavour of the month’ and doubtless there is a lot to be said for it in reducing the costs of civil litigation. I was involved in mediation recently in a consumer claim, and cannot say that the process did more than delay the listing of the case and ...
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PI claims barrier
I refer to Rob Barley’s letter and my comment is that you ‘don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater’. The incident Mr Barley refers to is utterly inexcusable. As a claimant PI lawyer of getting on for 35 years’ standing, I probably feel even ...
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Hudson questions SRA’s firm finances disclosure
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has questioned the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s decision to disclose that 30 leading firms are in serious financial trouble. At the SRA board last week, it emerged that 20% of the 160 firms in ‘intensive engagement’ talks about their finances rank ...
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SRA ‘wrong to pursue costs via conduct rules’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority was wrong to use professional conduct rules to pursue a former practitioner for costs, a tribunal has found. David Bellchamber had been ordered to pay fixed costs adding up to £850 in connection with a 2011 tribunal rebuke and subsequent unsuccessful appeal. ...
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Jackson prompts spurt in law firm start-ups
More firms opened in the month after the Jackson reforms came into force than at any point for almost two years. According to figures published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 138 firms opened in April – 39% more than in April 2012 and a 77% increase ...
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Legal aid cuts ‘end high-profile BME cases’
High-profile cases such as those of murder victims Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbié would not have been taken up by lawyers if the government’s legal aid cuts had been in place, a prominent solicitor-advocate has warned. Imran Khan, partner at London firm Imran Khan & ...
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Carbon footprint down 7% in legal sector
The Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and 57 law firms have reduced their per-head carbon emissions by nearly 7% since 2010, according to the sector’s annual environmental statement. The fall from 3.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010 to 3.63 tonnes of CO2e ...
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Family lawyers divided over Prest decision
The Supreme Court’s decision to order an oil tycoon to hand over assets held by his companies to his former wife has been hailed as a victory for fairness and justice by lawyers. But family practitioners are divided on the implications of last week’s judgment in ...
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Consumer rights boost welcomed by Society
The Law Society has welcomed a long-awaited move to consolidate consumer rights legislation and bring it into the digital age. A draft Consumer Rights Bill published last week by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will give consumers new rights over faulty goods and ...
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Old Bailey offers peek at ‘Dead Man’s Walk’
‘Dead Man’s Walk’ is a series of narrowing arches leading from the condemned cells of the Old Bailey to the gallows which operated outside the main gate until 1868. Photographers were invited behind the scenes of the Central Criminal Court last week on the eve ...
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Hunt begins for new SRA chief
Recruitment advertisements for a new chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority appeared in yesterday’s Sunday newspapers. The successful candidate will replace Antony Townsend, who last month announced his intention to leave the regulator later this year. According to an ...
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Legal aid champion Storer honoured
Carol Storer, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, was among the lawyers recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list at the weekend. Storer (pictured) received an OBE for services to legal aid. She has been LAPG director for the past five years, since leaving Shelter ...
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Profits squeeze as top-50 firms open results season
Preliminary results posted today by three top-50 firms show profits falling in 2012-13 on modest rises in turnover. At Osborne Clarke, European mergers boosted turnover by 14% to £112m, according to its provisional results posted today. However like-for-like revenue was down ...
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EC in cartels drive
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can claim damages when they are victims of price-fixing cartels. Under the proposal, decisions of national competition authorities finding an infringement will automatically constitute proof before national courts that the ...