Latest news – Page 622
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Existing sanctions sufficient for disclosure failures, judges rule
Senior judges today rejected the creation of additional sanctions for disclosure failures against either the prosecution or defence in criminal cases. A review of sanctions, requested by former lord chancellor Kenneth Clarke and carried out by Lord Justice Gross and Lord Justice Treacy, instead advocates updates ...
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Grayling ponders legal aid ban over prisoner votes
Prisoners may be refused legal aid to sue the government if parliament decides to defy the European Court of Human Rights over voting rights, the justice secretary said today. In a debate following a statement announcing a draft bill on the issue, Chris Grayling said ...
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Firms named for ‘grave failures’ in immigration disclosure
Immigration solicitors will face disciplinary action if they fail to reveal ‘all material facts’ when applying to prevent removals, the president of the Queen’s Bench Division warned, naming three firms who had not to complied with disclosure duties.
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Lord chief justice to step down
Lord Judge, lord chief justice, announced today that he will retire at the end of September 2013. A Judicial Office statement said that the process to appoint his successor as senior judge of England and Wales will begin in early 2013. Igor ...
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Legal Aid Agency names new faces
Irwin Mitchell partner Andrew Lockley is among three non-executive board members appointed to the Legal Aid Agency, which replaces the Legal Services Commission from next April. Lockley (pictured) heads the public law team at Irwin Mitchell, where he has worked for the past 16 years. Lockley, ...
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Solicitors urged to ‘beat the rush’ on PC renewals
Solicitors are being encouraged not to leave practising certificate renewals to the last minute if they want them to be processed as quickly as possible. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has today written to local law societies pointing out that the volume of users presently ...
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Fury and bewilderment at plans to curb judicial reviews
Lawyers responded critically to the prime minister’s call today for measures to cut the number of applications for judicial review. Adam Chapman, partner and head of public law at national firm Kingsley Napley, described the focus on judicial reviews as ‘a peculiar target’ in the ...
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Society ‘looking at alternatives to client accounts’
The Law Society is looking at whether solicitors still need to have client accounts and what other options could be available to help cut the cost of regulation. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson told the Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates annual conference on Saturday ...
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RTA costs to be cut by £700
The government is set to slash £700 from the fixed recoverable costs for low-level claims handled through the RTA Portal scheme, the Gazette can reveal. According to figures released today by the Ministry of Justice, solicitors running claims valued at up to £10,000 will be able to claim £500 in ...
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Supreme Court justice calls for positive discrimination on the menu
Positive discrimination is the only thing likely to significantly accelerate the rate of progress towards a more diverse judiciary, a Supreme Court judge has suggested. Lord Sumption, who is also a former member of the Judicial Appointments Commission, said positive discrimination to increase the number of ...
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Welsh jurisdiction 'cart without a horse'
The case for a separate legal jurisdiction for Wales is ‘considerably weakened’ without devolved responsibility for policing and justice, the nation’s most senior lawyer said tonight. Theo Huckle, counsel general for Wales, said respondents to this year’s Welsh assembly government consultation on a separate jurisdiction had ...
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Last-chance warning on COLPs and COFAs
Hundreds of law firms risk losing their licence to practise within a matter of weeks unless they appoint compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs), and finance and administration (COFAs). Some 400 have still to do so, despite more than three months having elapsed since the 31 July deadline and repeated ...
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Don’t meddle with education and training, Neuberger warns
The president of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, has warned regulators to hold back from radical change to legal education and training. Neuberger warned that too much emphasis on consumer interests could undermine the rule of law. The Legal and Education Training Review, set up by ...
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Efforts to challenge domestic violence are welcome
Thank you to Wragge & Co and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for their commendable initiatives in challenging domestic violence. I experienced domestic violence over a number of years while a solicitor in a City law firm, my ex-husband being a solicitor in another City law firm.
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Cause for complaint
I read the article by John Hyde entitled ‘Progress slow on standards’ with increasing disgruntlement over my coffee on Friday morning.
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Cheque mystery
On 12 September I sent an application to set aside a default judgment to Northampton. I was urged to send a cheque payable to an organisation by the name of ‘HM Courts and Tribunal Service’. My cheque was cashed on 3 October, since when I have heard nothing. I have ...
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Client care is top priority
As a (thankfully now semi-retired) solicitor of another generation, I was completely taken aback by the publication of James Caan’s comments. The headline - in the magazine - is: ‘Dragons’ Den star: It’s about the money.’ Is it?
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‘Injustice’ is a dirty word
James Caan played an unsophisticated and ruthless mercenary (Santino Corleone) in The Godfather. His namesake is now given space on your front page to argue a similar philosophy.
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Putting money before ethics
Granted there is much to criticise in the investment/business model of partnership but those are commercial problems that can be fixed privately. If they cannot, you walk, simple as that. Reading, however, that James Caan now owns a law firm, I ruefully thought back to a ...
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Bar chief rebuffed over LSB closure
Calls from the bar for the disbanding of the Legal Services Board met with a cool reception from the government this week. Bar Council chair Michael Todd QC told the bar’s annual conference that the super-regulator was going ‘beyond its brief’ and creating ‘burdensome costs’. ...