Latest news – Page 802
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News
Barristers offer ‘lifeline’ to criminal solicitors
Barristers’ chambers could provide a ‘lifeline’ to small criminal law firms, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC has told the Gazette. ...
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LSC extends family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review at a hearing last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, ...
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LSC extends family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, the court granted ...
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SRA steps up ARP enforcement action
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has visited 88 firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) since July, as part of its tougher enforcement strategy to clamp down on ‘financially unstable’ firms in the pool. The regulator announced a new enforcement regime in July designed to address the ...
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Rules on ABS discussions unlikely to be relaxed
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...
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Confusion over PII quote
In my experience, sole practitioners who have not yet taken steps to renew their professional indemnity insurance could be somewhat misled by your lead news item of 19 August, ‘Insurance boost for sole practitioners’
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LSC needs to explain allocation of work
In defence of its decisions affecting family practitioners, the Legal Services Commission states that it will commission the same level of help as last year. However, in the low-volume categories, it is clear that the LSC has deliberately reduced the numbers of matter starts nationally, to the detriment of the ...
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Comparison website offers free legal expenses insurance
A new website that compares solicitors by price, location and customer ratings has begun offering clients a free legal expenses insurance policy for road traffic accident (RTA) claims, it emerged last week. Legalcompare.com, which launched in August after 18 months of testing by consumer panels, is ...
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Lack of awareness on mental health
In his letter of 8 July, Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission referred to 'procurement area', ‘client access’, ‘proper advice provision’ and ‘client demand’. Regrettably, this shows a lack of awareness of the type of work in which mental health lawyers are involved.
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Ralli pursues group action for harassment against London firm
National firm Ralli is seeking to pursue a group action for harassment against London firm ACS Law in relation to the handling of file-sharing cases. Ralli has called for individuals to contact the firm if they have received what it claims are ‘bullying’ letters from ACS ...
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UK lawyer delegation suffer Colombia rights rebuff
A delegation of UK lawyers which visited Colombia last week to investigate the persecution and murder of human rights lawyers had permission to inspect the country’s overcrowded and violent prisons withdrawn. Delegates from the Law Society, Bar Council and Institute of Legal Executives were part of ...
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Criminal record certificates have blighted lives
Enhanced criminal record certificates (see 'Tainted records') were brought in after the Ian Huntley murder cases to protect ‘children and vulnerable adults’. Commendable though this may be, what does not seem to have been envisaged by our politicians was that the lives of numerous innocent people would be blighted. Here ...
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New law firm model could ease PII woes
A law firm has developed an innovative new structure that it believes could help small firms and sole practitioners obtain professional indemnity insurance (PII). Virtual firm Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair (Scomo) will join up with a small number of other firms under one ‘umbrella LLP’ that ...
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FSA underlines policyholder right to choose solicitor
The Financial Services Authority has ordered legal expenses insurers to prove to the regulator that they comply with European law that gives policyholders certain rights to choose their own solicitor. The FSA’s insurance sector director Ken Hogg warned insurers that, in light of a European Court ...
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Law Commission calls for greater use of civil penalties
The Law Commission has proposed a cut in the number of criminal offences for regulatory breaches. In a consultation published last week, the commission suggested that using civil penalties for technical breaches of farming, food safety, banking and retail laws would save the criminal justice system ...
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Defra lawyers face savage job cuts
A government department is to make 42 lawyers redundant, the Gazette has learned, as solicitors warn of more job losses to come in public sector legal teams. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is to make 40% of its 87 solicitors and 18 ...
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Lloyds Banking Group axes 2,500 firms from conveyancing panel
About 2,500 firms have been axed from Lloyds Banking Group’s conveyancing panel in its recent cull, the Law Society has estimated. Over the last month the group, which includes Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Birmingham Midshires, has reviewed its panel membership to remove firms ...
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Danish insurer enters PII market
A Danish insurance company has entered the solicitors professional indemnity insurance (PII) market to provide cover to small and medium-sized law firms, as the 1 October renewals deadline approaches. Copenhagen-based Alpha Insurance A/S will issue PII policies for firms of between one and 25 partners, in ...
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LSC reveals winners of Manchester CLAS contracts
The Legal Services Commission and Manchester City Council have commissioned Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau in conjunction with Shelter, local law firms Glaisyers and Platt Halpern, and Cheetham Hill Advice Centre to run Manchester’s new Community Legal Advice Service. The service will operate from six sites and ...
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Treasury attacked over equality impact of budget
HM Treasury has missed the deadline for responding to papers filed by a gender equality pressure group seeking a judicial review of the coalition’s first budget, it emerged last week. The Fawcett Society is claiming that the Treasury failed to fulfil its gender equality duty when ...