Latest news – Page 599
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News
International private client firms in merger talks
International firms Speechly Bircham and Withers, whose joint headcount includes more than 600 lawyers, are discussing a merger. A joint statement said that the firms are in ‘preliminary discussions’ and both see ‘exciting opportunities for growth in such a merger’. ...
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Grayling looks to boost revenue from litigation
Justice secretary Chris Grayling will consult on plans to raise more money from those who litigate in courts in England and Wales. Grayling today announced he had asked his department to look at reform of the resourcing and administration of HM Courts & Tribunals Service. ...
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Zimbabwe’s Mtetwa released unharmed
Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been freed on bail after more than a week in prison and a decade spent campaigning for the rule of law. She was accused of shouting at police officers and demanding to see a search warrant when police ...
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Court of Appeal dismisses first ‘loss of control’ challenges
The Court of Appeal today provided its first interpretation of the new partial defence to murder, ‘loss of control’ in cases where fear of violence was claimed. Loss of control replaces the previous defence of provocation which could reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter. Following Law Commission ...
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Blow to criminal bar as QCs kept in accreditation scheme
QCs will have their own discrete level of accreditation in the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) announced today. The move will be welcomed by the Law Society, which was adamant that QCs be included in the scheme, but disappoint ...
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NHS will benefit from legal duty of candour, says lawyer
A legal duty of candour will save the NHS money in the long term through more transparent clinical negligence claims, a leading specialist lawyer has predicted. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday confirmed that the NHS will have a legal duty to be honest about mistakes, following ...
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Bar chiefs line up to defend cab rank rule
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have published separate reports staunchly defending the cab rank rule. They both respond to a January report by the Legal Services Board in which professors John Flood and Morten Hviid suggested the rule is ‘redundant’ and should be abolished. ...
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Secret hearings in civil courts to be introduced in weeks
Secretive closed material procedure (CMP) hearings are to be extended into the country’s main civil courts following the House of Lords’ narrow rejection of an amendment to the controversial Justice and Security Bill. Peers yesterday voted by 174 to 158 to reject a Labour amendment to ...
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Clegg urges lawyers to help employee ownership drive
The deputy prime minister today called on the legal profession to gain an understanding of employee ownership of businesses to help clients set up John-Lewis style enterprises. Delivering the first Robert Oakeshott Memorial Lecture at the Law Society this morning, Clegg backed a target ...
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SFO doubling Libor investigation team
‘Significant developments’ in the Libor investigation are expected over the next few months, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) indicated last night. Addressing the inaugural meeting of the Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA), David Green (pictured) said the SFO is doubling the team working on ...
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Society intervenes in Nepal 'anti-Maoist' human rights case
The Law Society has intervened in the case of a Nepalese human rights lawyer facing prosecution as an ‘anti-Maoist dollar mongerer’. The Society has called on Nepal’s prime minister Khil Raj Regmi to protect lawyer Mandira Sharma from threats of death and violence. ...
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‘Whitehall farce’ border agency to be abolished
The Law Society’s immigration law committee has cautiously welcomed the announcement that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) is to be abolished and brought back within the Home Office under the direct control of ministers. In an unscheduled House of Commons statement yesterday, home secretary Theresa ...
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Appeal judge makes blistering attack on ‘emasculating’ legal aid cuts
A retired judge has used one of his final cases to launch an attack on the government’s ‘emasculation’ of legal aid. Sir Alan Ward said judges of all levels were facing increasing difficulties with litigants in person – a problem which will only get worse when ...
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Troubled Ashton Fox bought by Antony Hodari in pre-pack deal
North-west personal injury firm Antony Hodari has announced the acquisition of Preston firm Ashton Fox in a pre-pack deal. Ashton Fox went in to administration last month. The deal, for an undisclosed amount, includes all work in progress, totaling around 8,000 cases, predominantly on mortgage ...
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Society wins more flexibility for Santander panel firms
Conveyancing firms will continue to be able to act on behalf of Santander while their Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) applications are being considered, the Law Society has announced, following negotiations with the bank. Last year the bank changed the terms of its residential conveyancing panel to ...
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Judge criticises ‘desultory’ training in run-up to 1 April
A senior member of the judiciary has become the first judge to criticise in public the level of training given ahead of the Jackson reforms coming into force. Senior master Steven Whitaker (pictured), who is also the Queen’s remembrancer at the Royal Courts of Justice, said ...
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LSB throws gates open to bar public access
The Legal Services Board today approved rule changes that will allow barristers to deal directly with clients in areas eligible for legal aid and for barristers of under three years’ call to be directly accessible to clients. The Bar Standards Board (BSB) said it is strengthening ...
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A better approach to diversity
Larissa Hutson (4 March) states that one of the statutory responsibilities of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is ‘to reach and encourage a wide range of applicants to properly reflect the full diversity of the profession’. The fact that the judiciary does not properly reflect the diversity of the legal ...
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Judicial appointments: random access
I am responding to a letter (Larissa Hutson, 4 March) concerning research being carried out to discover what attracts members of the legal profession to apply – or puts them off from applying – to be a judge. This work is being undertaken by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) in ...
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Two decades of greed
Amid all the doom and gloom of Jackson et al, perhaps the best thing that has happened to our profession in recent years is the government’s collaboration with the insurance industry orchestrating the complete collapse of the personal injury sector. With headlines suggesting ‘shock’, and announcing redundancies and closures of ...