Latest news – Page 617
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News
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 ...
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Peer-to-peer pioneer
Eight law firms have borrowed over £500,000 through commercial peer-to-peer lending, an innovative form of financing which some experts predict could one day replace banks. Lender Funding Circle says it has lent a total of £500,000 to eight legal practices: three from the north-west, one ...
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Prison term sought for quoting Society charity report
Fiji’s attorney general has demanded jail for the Methodist minister found in contempt of court for quoting a Law Society Charity report whose contents were first revealed in the Gazette. Counsel for the attorney, Ropate Green, sought a minimum sentence of six months for Reverend Akuila ...
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Close down CMCs tomorrow - Desmond Hudson
The chief executive of the Law Society has publicly called for claims management companies (CMCs) to be outlawed. Giving evidence to the House of Commons transport committee, which is investigating the cost impact on motor insurance from whiplash claims, Desmond Hudson said that the government ...
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Wiltshire solicitor’s murderer jailed for 28 years
A disgruntled litigant has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for the murder of Wiltshire solicitor Jim Ward. Michael Chudley, 63, shot Ward with a sawn-off shotgun on 2 July last year at the MGW Law building in Devizes. Chudley had ...
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Neuberger defends judges’ right to speak out on cuts
Lawyers and judges have a duty to help the justice system work - and could learn from eBay’s online dispute resolution procedures, according to the president of the Supreme Court. In a wide-ranging speech at the Institute for Government thinktank last night, Lord Neuberger gave a ...
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Consumer panel promises ‘long game’ on will regulation
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has claimed credit for changing the climate of opinion on the regulation of will-writing – despite the government’s outright rejection of the idea last month. The quango’s annual report, published today, lists will-writing as one area where it had an ...
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Hundreds face ‘unrated cycle’ as Balva fails
Hundreds of law firms who insured with failed Latvian insurer Balva face being caught in an ‘unrated cycle’ after offers from other unrated insurance providers. The Law Society today warned that members are being offered to transfer policies across to unrated insurer Berliner Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, by the same broker that ...
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HRA applies to soldiers on duty, Supreme Court confirms
The solicitor leading the case for the families of soldiers killed on duty in Iraq has welcome today’s Supreme Court judgment that gives them the right to claim against the UK government. Susan Smith (pictured, centre), Colin Redpath (pictured, left) and Karla and Courtney Ellis, known ...