Latest news – Page 699
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News
Djanogly hails court closure programme
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has promised to forge ahead with the government’s court closure programme, after being encouraged by early results. Speaking to a Law Society fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference, Djanogly revealed that around a third of the 142 planned closures have already ...
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Tories get tough on criminals who refuse to meet victims
The Conservatives want to impose tougher sentences on criminals who refuse to meet their victims, even if the criminal has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Justice minister Crispin Blunt (pictured) told a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference in Manchester today that he wants ...
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News
Tories get tough on criminals who refuse to meet victims
The Conservatives want to impose tougher sentences on criminals who refuse to meet their victims, even if the criminal has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Justice minister Crispin Blunt (pictured) told a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference in Manchester today that he wants ...
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News
Tories get tough on criminals who refuse to meet victims
The Conservatives want to impose tougher sentences on criminals who refuse to meet their victims, even if the criminal has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Justice minister Crispin Blunt (pictured) told a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference in Manchester today that he wants ...
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News
Tories get tough on criminals who refuse to meet victims
The Conservatives want to impose tougher sentences on criminals who refuse to meet their victims, even if the criminal has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Justice minister Crispin Blunt (pictured) told a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference in Manchester today that he wants ...
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News
Advocacy assurance scheme ‘halted’, declares criminal bar
Plans to introduce the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) have run into serious difficulties, it has emerged. The Criminal Bar Association appears to have withdrawn its engagement with the controversial accreditation scheme amid a dispute about linking payment to accreditation level. In an email to ...
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Charge set to be imposed for employment tribunal claims
The government plans to introduce a charge for taking a case to an employment tribunal, which litigants will only get back if they win. Chancellor George Osborne told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today that the move will reduce the risk to small businesses of hiring new people. ...
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News
New SRA handbook online
The final version of the new Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) handbook has now been posted online. The handbook, which includes the updated Code of Conduct, is to underpin the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) on 6 October. It was prepared by the SRA in consultation ...
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News
Lawyers slam ‘chaotic’ asylum unit
The UK’s system for registering asylum claims is chaotic and unworkable and urgently needs a root-and-branch overhaul, lawyers’ groups allege. Problems at the ‘Kafkaesque’ asylum screening unit in Croydon (pictured), the only such unit remaining after a similar unit in Liverpool closed in 2009, have ...
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Indemnity insurance renewal ‘less frantic’
Solicitors are reporting a less turbulent renewal round for professional indemnity insurance this year as the deadline approaches, although prices have risen steeply for some mid-sized firms. Hilary Underwood, chairwoman of the Sole Practitioners Group, said there have yet to be any complaints from members ...
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SRA consults on referral fees ban
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to canvass personal injury firms dependent on referral fees to ask how they will cope when the government moves to ban the payments. Richard Collins, SRA director of standards, told a LexisNexis conference on professional regulation that the authority was identifying ...
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Leading QC: judicial system discriminates against white men
Many people now perversely believe the judicial and QC appointment systems discriminate against white men, according to a leading silk who is about to become a High Court judge. Interviewed by the Gazette, Rabinder Singh QC stressed that progress has been made over recent years to ...
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News
Death ‘inevitable’ if legal aid cuts go ahead
It is ‘inevitable’ that someone will die if the government proceeds with planned legal aid funding cuts for cases involving domestic violence, the Law Society has warned. Vice-president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that the definition of domestic ...
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Lords may amend legal aid reforms, says top peer
One of the legal profession’s most distinguished peers has offered fresh hope that the House of Lords may yet drive through significant amendments to the legal aid and civil litigation reforms. Liberal Democrat Lord Carlile of Berriew QC believes there is enough support from all sides ...
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Internet policing is ‘inevitable’
State-imposed control of the internet is ‘inevitable’ if the conflict between the right to privacy and a free press is ever to be resolved, lawyers and journalists suggested last week at a Law Society public debate. They also warned that the current press regulator is toothless ...
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City law firms cool on ABSs
City law firms do not generally see alternative business structures as attractive, because they are reluctant to cede control of the firm to source external funding that they do not need. This is one conclusion of the first of a series of studies looking at ...
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Pannone may spin off Affinity
Manchester firm Pannone may spin off its white label legal services arm when alternative business structures are permitted and allow companies using the service to invest and share profits in the business. Pannone launched Affinity Solutions in May, providing a ‘seamless’ consumer law service to non-legal ...
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Survey: UK cheapest for international arbitration
The UK is the cheapest and most popular venue for international arbitration, according to an authoritative survey published this week. Some 74% of party costs in international arbitrations are accounted for by external legal costs, and external fees are 26% higher in the rest of Europe, ...
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News
Fixed fees to be 'renegotiated’ after referral ban
Claimant lawyers’ legal fees under the Road Traffic Accident portal scheme will have to be renegotiated as a result of the forthcoming ban on referral fees, the Ministry of Justice confirmed to the Gazette today. An MoJ spokesman said the fees, which were calculated including an ...
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As a profession we are falling for the false perception that solicitors are inaccessible
The letter from Viv Williams of the 360 Legal Group (22 September) repeats the assumption that legal services need to be more accessible and friendly 'and that firms failing to adapt will get left behind'. I run a very small high street firm. We obtain constant ...