Latest news – Page 722
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News
National protests against legal aid cuts
Legal aid campaigners are to step up the pressure on government by holding marches across the country tomorrow in protest at the legal aid reforms to be outlined in the Justice Bill, expected next week. The ‘day of action’, organised by Justice for All and ...
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Fingerprint standards questioned by Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has called for an examination of the quality standards of fingerprint experts. The court last week quashed the conviction of Peter Kenneth Smith from Nottinghamshire for the murder of his neighbour Hilda Owen in 2007, after doubt was cast on the reliability ...
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Law firms running out of time, warns Mayson
Time is running out for law firms that have not yet considered the changes they should make to compete with new entrants to the legal market, a leading commentator has suggested. Speaking at the Law Society’s Law Management Section conference, Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal ...
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Russian lawyers denied visas for Society human rights event
Twelve lawyers from Russia were denied visas to attend a three-day Law Society human rights training course in London last month. The Russian lawyer who co-ordinated the visas, which would have enabled the lawyers to receive training on the rule of law, described the decision not ...
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Norton Rose in overseas mergers
City firm Norton Rose was this week expected to confirm mergers with firms in South Africa and Canada. The enlarged group will rank among the top-10 legal practices in the world by headcount when it completes a link-up with Canada’s Ogilvy Renault and Deneys Reitz in ...
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Colombian lawyers under threat, report claims
Six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 defence lawyers were murdered in Colombia’s ‘judicial war’ between 2003 and 2009, a report by a delegation of British and international lawyers has claimed. The report, published last week, found that Colombian lawyers still live in constant fear of assassination, ...
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SRA approves scheme requiring advocates to be assessed by judges
The solicitors’ regulator has agreed to back proposals for a Quality Assurance Scheme despite some fears about how solicitors will be assessed. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) yesterday endorsed plans to accredit advocates working in criminal cases. The scheme, ...
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Work-based learning without training contract dubbed ‘success’ by SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given a thumbs up to ‘work-based learning’ as a route to qualification without the need to secure a training contract after analysing the results of a two-year pilot scheme. A report on the pilot results, produced by Middlesex University, concluded ...
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Law firms maintain staff bonus levels
Some 91% of law firm bonus schemes have remained unchanged over the last 12 months, but personal injury firms are expected to buck this trend by reducing bonuses next year, a survey of 400 regional law firms by recruitment consultancy BCL Legal has found. Other key ...
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Personal injury claims costs to rise despite reforms
Costs faced by the personal injury insurance industry are likely to rise despite government reforms of the system, according to a report by market analysts Datamonitor. The report found that insurers have little faith that litigation changes will see solicitors lower their fees. ...
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Firms without CQS quality mark ‘risk being left behind’ - Society
As firms begin thinking about renewing their professional indemnity insurance, the Law Society has warned conveyancing solicitors to ignore its new Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) ‘at their risk’. Since the application process launched in January, almost 1000 firms have applied and 202 have ...
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Claimants will miss out through CFA reforms, research suggests
Campaign groups have pleaded with the government to climb down over ‘no fee, no fee’ changes after publishing new research. A survey of recent claimants using the conditional fee arrangement (CFA) found that more half of respondents had an income below the national average of £25,000. ...
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Law Society to intervene in Prudential privilege appeal
The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend legal professional privilege (LPP) to accountants and others. LPP currently only applies to certain communications between lawyers and their clients, conferring absolute confidentiality so ...
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LSB publishes final referral fees decision
The Legal Services Board has dropped plans to force law firms to publish their referral fee arrangements on their websites, in its final decision on the regulation of referral fees published today. The LSB said it would no longer seek to prescribe the precise measures that ...
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Legal aid faces threat of further cuts following rape backlash
The government is considering fresh legal aid cuts because Kenneth Clarke's politically maladroit remarks about rape sentencing have jeopardised its bid to save money by cutting the prison population, it has been suggested to the Gazette.
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PC fee expected to fall in 2011/12
Law firms and solicitors could see their regulatory fees slashed by almost a fifth this year. However, there is likely to be an increase in contributions to the compensation fund. Under SRA plans to be put before its board tomorrow, the individual ...
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LSC big firm meetings 'unfair', small practices allege
Small legal aid firms accused the Legal Services Commission of breaching its duty of fairness this week, as it emerged that the LSC had scheduled two meetings in recent days exclusively for large firms, in the run-up to the government’s best value tendering (BVT) consultation. ...
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Magistrates drop court closure challenge
Sedgemoor magistrates have dropped legal action seeking to prevent the closure of their court after having ‘lost faith in the system’. The decision leaves the Ministry of Justice facing three actions over its programme of court closures. Mike Dodden, former chairman of ...
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Solicitors face 'challenge' from Council for Licensed Conveyancers over ABS
The solicitors’ profession faces an ‘interesting challenge’ following the Legal Services Board’s recent stamp of approval for the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to become a regulator of alternative business structures, a leading market commentator has suggested. Stephen Mayson of the Legal Services Institute said that ...
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Solicitors Regulation Authority under attack from insurers
Insurers have criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority for being too slow to act when law firms breach the rules. Speaking at the Law Society Property Section’s annual conference in London last week, Andrew Nickels, risk manager at Zurich Professional, claimed the SRA fails to take action ...