Latest news – Page 744
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News
Council cuts reprieve for legal advice centres
The High Court has quashed a decision by administrative body London Councils to cut £10m from its £26.4m grant scheme for voluntary organisations across the capital, including legal advice centres. The decision would have left more than 200 groups, including the Mary Ward Legal Advice ...
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Citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham to close
Five citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham are expected to close their doors next week, unless they can raise £50,000 per month to continue, after the city council withdrew all of its £600,000-a-year funding. Without new money, the City Centre, Northfield, Tyseley, Handsworth and Kingstanding services ...
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Appeal court backs CFA costs agreement
Solicitors must be allowed to shoulder the risk of adverse costs orders on behalf of their clients to ensure proper access to justice, the Court of Appeal has ruled, in a judgment welcomed by the Law Society. Giving judgment in Sibthorpe and Morris v London Borough ...
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MoJ drops bill to modernise law of damages
The government dropped proposals to modernise the law of damages last month. The Ministry of Justice has decided not to proceed with the Civil Law Reform Bill published in December 2009. The bill had put forward several amendments to the law on damages, as recommended ...
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Law firm not liable to loan losses, says appeal court
A law firm that gave negligent advice to a bank before the bank lost £28m in loans advanced to two local authorities does not have to reimburse those losses, the Court of Appeal ruled last week. Overturning a High Court decision, the appeal court ruled in ...
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Fears grow over EU contract law 'confusion'
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy warned that a pan-European contract law could create ‘confusion and uncertainty’ for business, as the deadline for submissions to a European Commission consultation on the issue passed this week. The firm also criticised a lack of business representation on the ...
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LoveFilm acquisition, steel demerger, fencing sponsorship and shoe sale
In the picture: City firm Hogan Lovells advised internet retailer Amazon on acquiring £200m worth of shares in film rental company LoveFilm, giving it a majority stake. City firm Stephenson Harwood advised LoveFilm. ...
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Supreme Court issues guidance on courtroom twitter use
The Supreme Court has today given the ‘green light’ to allow people to ‘tweet’ from inside the courtroom. It has issued guidance on the use of live text-based communication by legal teams, journalists and members of the public of what is going on in court. ...
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Conveyancers pressured into tax avoidance
Conveyancing solicitors are being pressured to become involved in stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance schemes that cost the public purse around £35m, the Gazette has learned. To protect solicitors and help them challenge requests from clients or third parties to become involved in such schemes, ...
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Debt advice service to close
The Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) free national debt advice service is set to close after the government axed its £25m-a-year funding. Last month, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, confirmed that funding for the free face-to-face advice service, which has operated since 2005, will ...
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ABS: retrograde step?
May I add to the ruminations of Peter Jones concerning alternative business structures? Some 47 years in private practice has engendered within me but one confidently held opinion, which is that the law is vastly more complex than it ever was, and becomes more so by ...
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ABS: retrograde step?
May I add to the ruminations of Peter Jones concerning alternative business structures? Some 47 years in private practice has engendered within me but one confidently held opinion, which is that the law is vastly more complex than it ever was, and becomes more so by ...
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Changing perceptions on tackling negligence
Another day, another insult, but are we so apathetic that we sigh and say ‘oh well’ when Mike Penning MP throws 'ambulance chasing insults' at us The landscape is changing, yet many lawyers I speak to do not appear to fully realise the potential impact ...
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Unbalancing the scales of justice
I admit to a certain amount of grim amusement at the howls of protest from the profession at the proposals in respect of legal aid and conditional free agreements (I have clients who fund their cases under both regimes).
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SRA makes training appointments in advance of review
Slaughter and May human resources and training chief Louise Meikle has been appointed as one of five external members of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s education and training committee, which is to conduct a fundamental review of training. Meikle is responsible for the recruitment, development and retention ...
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Regulator presses for steeper fines against ABSs
Alternative business structures (ABSs) must face fines far in excess of the £150m maximum proposed by the Legal Services Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority recommended last week. Responding to an LSB consultation on the issue, the SRA said that ‘the largest commercial entities might require a ...
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LSC and consumer bodies call for complaints publication
The Legal Services Commission is pushing to obtain access to 'detailed information' about successful complaints made against solicitors, which it will use to assess the performance of its providers. Responding to a Legal Services Ombudsman (LeO) consultation of what information it should publish on the complaints ...
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Profits continue to fall at Scottish legal firms
Scotland's solicitors’ profession is becoming increasingly polarised as the downturn continues, new figures show. Smaller firms in Glasgow and Edinburgh are continuing to suffer sharp declines in profitability, but the biggest practices, including cross-border firms, are showing strong signs of recovery. ...
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MoJ confirms delay of Bribery Act
The Bribery Act will not come into force in April, the Ministry of Justice confirmed today. An MoJ spokeswoman said that the ministry is working on implementing guidance ‘to make it practical and comprehensive for business’. Business leaders had criticised the legislation ...
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Replace ARP with three-month ‘grace period’, Law Society says
The assigned risks pool (ARP) should be scrapped and law firms should instead be given a three-month grace period by insurers in which to either find alternative professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover, merge, or close down, the Law Society is to recommend. Outlining the Society’s proposal, ...