Latest news – Page 665
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News
Law Society slams minimum salary consultation
Scrapping the minimum salary could force some trainee solicitors to claim housing benefits and take on second jobs, creating an image that will neither benefit the profession nor promote social mobility within it, the Law Society has warned. In its response to a Solicitors Regulation ...
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Drinking and casual sexism still institutional in top firms, LSB research claims
The legal profession’s culture of ‘casual sexism’ and high levels of drinking has led women and ethnic minority solicitors to adopt special strategies to overcome institutional discrimination in law firms, researchers funded by the Legal Services Board told a conference today. Some Asian women solicitors choose ...
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Caplen next in line for deputy vice president
The Law Society council has elected Andrew Caplen as the next deputy vice president of the Society. Caplen, a criminal and commercial property consultant at Southampton firm Abels, will take up the role in July and become president in 2014. He has been a council member ...
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Society wins clarity on independent advice
A Law Society campaign has led the government to re-draft legislation to remove uncertainty over whether a dismissed employee’s solicitor may be said to provide ‘independent’ advice on a compromise agreement. Compromise agreements are undertakings between employers and dismissed employees, whereby in return for a severance ...
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Hamza deportation no breach of article three, rights court rules
Abu Hamza and four other alleged terrorists are set to be extradited to the US following today’s European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling that detention conditions and length of sentences in the US would not amount to ill-treatment. Proceedings against a sixth alleged terrorist, who ...
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LSB defies calls to 'change direction'
The Legal Services Board super-regulator looks set to defy calls from the profession to scale back its role. In a review published yesterday of the five years since the Legal Services Act, the board says there is ‘no need at this stage for a change ...
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LSC to terminate CLAC contracts
The Legal Services Commission has signalled its intention to end all community legal advice centre and network (CLAC/N) contracts next year. It has written to all contract holders and partner local authorities to inform them of the proposal to end the contracts on 31 March 2013. ...
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Committal fee change lawful, High Court rules
The High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to scrap lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings was lawful. Dismissing a judicial review sought by the Law Society, Lord Justice Burnton cited the impact of legal aid fee cuts on lawyers. No one, he said, ‘could not ...
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Asbestos ruling ‘will not open floodgates’
A leading trade union lawyer has dismissed expectations that a Supreme Court ruling will prompt a rush of asbestos-related litigation. The 'trigger case' judgment last week ruled in favour of allowing insurance claims by families of people who died after exposure to asbestos. Following the ruling, ...
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Cautious reception to SRA ‘racism’ report
Claims by the Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) that the Solicitors Regulation Authority is ‘institutionally racist’ have been given a cool reception by other individuals representing minority ethnic lawyers. The SBL’s report Breaking the Silence: who is regulating the regulator? accused the SRA of intervening on ...
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Client emails to be evidence in mis-selling claims
Emails between bank staff and owners of small businesses who bought interest-rate hedging contracts will be evidence in mis-selling claims totalling up to £1bn, the Gazette can reveal. Norton Accord, the company that has secured funds to launch up to 4,000 cases, said that client emails ...
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NHS reforms ‘will mean more litigation’
The government’s reforms to the NHS in England are set to cause a wave of legal difficulties for local authorities, solicitors were warned this week. Ben Troke, partner at Midlands firm Browne Jacobson, told the Solicitors in Local Government annual weekend school that the Health and ...
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Court proceedings times main cause of adoption delays
The most significant cause of delay for children needing adoption is the length of time taken to complete court proceedings, the education inspectorate Ofsted said this week. The Right on Time report found care proceedings took an average of 14 months to complete. It was ...
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‘Daft’ FoI requests can be ignored
Public bodies can safely ignore requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) for their plans to deal with zombie invasions. Graham Smith, deputy information commissioner, told the Solicitors in Local Government annual weekend school last week that ‘silly and daft’ requests would be covered by existing guidance on vexatious ...
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New magistrates' courts open
Two new magistrates’ courts opened this week in Chelmsford (pictured) and Colchester. Both will deal with the full range of criminal and family work, and Chelmsford will also have the capacity to deal with Crown court cases.
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Title role
If Mr Pearlman would like to be addressed as ‘Doctor’, at what stage of his career does he want to be addressed as ‘Mr’? Or is he suggesting that medical consultants are not as well-respected as their junior colleagues? ...
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Raw deal for LDPs?
Having spoken to the SRA on behalf of a current non-lawyer manager (NLM) LDP, I was left bewildered as to why any legal disciplinary practice would wish to convert to ABS before the automatic passporting process (which will be delayed). When the plans for the introduction ...
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Sole Practitioners Group remains strongly opposed to ABSs
As chair of the Sole Practitioners Group, who provided material for the news item ‘Sole practitioner numbers rise’, I would like to make a number of points.
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Civil partners get the same divorce treatment as married couples, appeal judges rule
In a landmark financial judgment The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the courts will treat civil partners in the same way as married couples when their relationship ends. The court last week overturned a High Court decision that awarded west end actor Donald Gallagher nearly £1.7m following the break-up ...
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LSB spurns conveyancers’ litigation ambitions
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has refused the Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ application to regulate conveyancers conducting litigation and advocacy. The LSB said it had not granted the application 'on the grounds that the CLC lacks the legal power to make rules and regulations that ...