Latest news – Page 583
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News
Backing for single PII scheme
A single professional indemnity insurance scheme and compensation scheme could cover the entire legal services sector, if a consumer watchdog proposal becomes reality. In a report published today on legal regulators’ financial protection schemes, the Legal Services Consumer Panel says that a single scheme would allow ...
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Victim review will be ‘costly and time-consuming’
Granting victims an automatic right to review Crown Prosecution Service decisions will be ‘costly, time-consuming and add little to the current process’, a prominent solicitor has claimed. Director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer last week announced plans to allow victims and bereaved relatives to review any ...
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New potential market in aviation claims
Law firms have a potential market of as many as one million claimants who may be eligible for compensation for delayed flights, it has been suggested. Personal injury specialist Bott & Co said this week it has recovered €300,000 for 600 clients in the 100 days ...
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SRA takes over 16 months to approve ABS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority took a record 16 months and 26 days to process the alternative business structure application of personal injury firm Minster Law, it has emerged. Outgoing Minster chairman Adrian Christmas told the Gazette that he applied to gain ABS status on 3 January ...
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Reformation relics fetch £900k for Law Society
The Law Society has raised more than £900,000 from the sale of anti-Catholic polemical and associated artefacts bequeathed to it in the 19th century. The Mendham Collection, assembled by Anglican clergyman Joseph Mendham (1769-1856), contained mostly 15th and 16th century books relating to the Reformation. Items ...
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IT firm offers route round referral fee ban
A legal technology firm is promoting a business plan which it says will allow solicitors to continue working with personal injury referrers. The company, Epoq, has created LegalGo, a free assistance plan that claims management companies distribute to claimants. The CMC signs ...
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Firms braced for spending squeeze
Top-100 law firms face a squeeze in client legal spending over the next 12 months, because almost all corporate clients who have not yet reviewed instructions and spend plan to do so. The result will be massive consolidation among the magic circle’s chasing pack, according ...
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Thousands take up arms over cuts
The fight against the government’s Transforming Legal Aid reforms heated up last week as a consultation on the proposals closed with more than 13,000 responses understood to have been lodged with the Ministry of Justice. Although the ministry could not confirm the figure, this would ...
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Former solicitor convicted in £20m fraud case
A former solicitor was among five people convicted in a £20m mortgage fraud at Mold Crown Court last week. Nicholas John Jones, 53, who at the time worked at Ravencourt Legal Services in Flint, was convicted along with two property speculators, a surveyor and a financial ...
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SRA approves first barrister-led ABS
A London chambers specialising in immigration law has become the first barrister-led practice to apply successfully for ABS status. The Solicitors Regulation Authority said Richmond Chambers was the first of its 152 alternative business structures to be headed by barristers. Although members ...
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SRA puts a price on extra intervention levy
Each solicitor may have to pay an extra £23 a year in compensation fund contributions to pay for future interventions into failing firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided to use the compensation fund to meet the estimated £7m budget overspend on interventions this year, occasioned ...
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Lord chief justice backs moves to protect vulnerable witnesses
New guidelines for prosecutions of child abuse cases to protect vulnerable witnesses were welcomed by the judiciary today – nearly a quarter of a century after they were first proposed. The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said that he was delighted at the lord chancellor’s ...
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Juniors ‘on £14 a day’ after legal aid cuts, MPs hear
Junior barristers will be paid as little as £14 a day – well below the minimum wage – under the government’s proposed criminal legal aid cuts, the House of Commons justice committee heard today.
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Mass arrest of lawyers in Istanbul protests
The Law Society has condemned the mass arrest of more than 50 lawyers in Istanbul. The lawyers were taking part in a protest inside the Çağlayan Court, near Taksim Square, when they were arrested, detained and reportedly beaten by the police, the Society said. ...
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Mass arrest of lawyers in Istanbul protests
The Law Society has condemned the mass arrest of more than 50 lawyers in Istanbul. The lawyers were taking part in a protest inside the Çağlayan Court, near Taksim Square, when they were arrested, detained and reportedly beaten by the police, the Society said. ...
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Supreme Court allows appeal in Prest v Petrodel
A seven-strong Supreme Court has unanimously allowed an appeal by an oil tycoon’s former wife and ordered him to hand over assets held by his companies. In Prest v Petrodel Resources Limited & Others [2013] UKSC 34, the court, led by Lord Sumption (pictured), used trust ...
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Retreat is not an option, says Legal Services Board
A hands-off approach to regulation is ‘not an option’ for the Legal Services Board, the embattled super-regulator has protested. In a statement on its role timed to coincide with the publication of its annual report, the board conceded that other regulators would prefer it to be ...
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Exclusive: top judges compound Grayling’s PCT woes
Senior judges led by the lord chief justice and master of the rolls have weighed in to the fevered debate about Transforming Legal Aid by issuing their own sharply worded critique of the plans. The 10-strong Judicial Executive Board’s 25-page response to the consultation, seen by ...
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30 high-impact firms in ‘serious financial difficulty’
More than 30 of the top 200 UK firms are in serious financial difficulty, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed today. The regulator is in what it calls ‘intense engagement’ with 160 firms at risk of failure, of which eight are in immediate danger. ...
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Ombudsman claims wider territory
The handler of complaints about solicitors wants greater scope to investigate all professional services that have a legal dimension. The Legal Ombudsman today called for a broader approach, to mirror changing consumer behaviour and innovations in industry and legal services. The call ...