News in focus – Page 23
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NewsNews focus: tech challenge aiming high
The SRA is offering lawtech innovators £250,000 to help improve access to legal advice. But is technology the solution to this problem and has the regulator truly understood the issues involved?
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NewsNews focus: Conduct unbecoming
An International Bar Association survey has laid bare the scale of harassment and bullying in the law. Senior legal sector figures hope the report will be a wake-up call.
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NewsNews focus: How costs-chaser James Green is making new friends
Costs chaser James Green has long been a bête noire of personal injury lawyers. But following the landmark Herbert ruling, he is in demand not only from claims management companies, but also the very firms that have reason to resent him.
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NewsNews focus: Red alert on housing legal aid
The Law Society has again exposed the worsening landscape of legal aid housing provision. Although the MoJ is piloting early support, is this really enough to revive a barren area of law?
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NewsNews focus: Inquests show that not all are equal in death
State actors are handed millions for expensive lawyers while bereaved families get little or nothing. Calls for equality of arms at inquests are getting louder, with MPs demanding reform
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NewsNews focus: Go compare, conveyancers
HM Land Registry has published a mammoth set of data on requests for further information. Are firms with a high requisition rate ready to learn lessons from the exercise?
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NewsLaw firms report higher profits for ninth year in a row - but work is slowing
Annual benchmarking survey shows majority of practices in good health, but this year income is not expected to rise by much more than inflation.
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NewsNews focus: The colour of a client’s money
As the SRA renews its drive to clamp down on money laundering, law firms have been put on notice that they will need to show how they are complying with the rules – or face hefty sanctions.
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NewsNews focus: Equality still a work in progress
New Law Society research confirms that tackling unconscious bias, fair pay and promoting widespread flexible working are key elements needed to achieve gender equality in the legal profession.
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NewsNews focus: our clinical negligence award was not a 'lottery win'
Few things rile a claimant lawyer more than headlines saying their client has ‘won’ compensation. The Gazette met one family to hear what a multi-million-pound award really meant.
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NewsNews focus: Lawtech - mind the gap
A natural aversion to risk and a heavier regulatory burden mean lawtech startups struggle to attract law firm customers and find it difficult to progress beyond the ‘innovation’ stage.
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NewsNews focus: Making the bar a 'happy place to be'
This year’s bar chair wants to end the profession’s ‘24/7 culture’ to improve wellbeing and help tackle retention woes. And he’s optimistic the MoJ is finally getting the message on funding
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NewsNews focus: A ‘drop in the ocean’ for justice?
The Ministry of Justice sweetened its long-awaited review of swingeing legal aid cuts with a pledge to spend £8m on legal support and litigants in person. But does its response go far enough?
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NewsNews focus: A freelance life off the legal treadmill
More and more lawyers, attracted to the notion of not being tied to a particular practice while working flexibly, become consultants. As law firms are discovering, freelancers offer manifold benefits
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NewsNews focus: MoJ nurses wounds after courts IT crash
The Ministry of Justice insists this month’s IT fiasco has nothing to do with its £1bn court modernisation plans. Unfortunately solicitors keeping the wheels of justice turning cannot afford to relax.
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NewsNews focus: Making criminal defence pay
The government is reviewing criminal legal aid fees but does it fully grasp the predicament of embattled practitioners? And how does it stop juniors fleeing an impoverished sector for City riches?
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NewsNews focus: Short-circuiting justice?
International Forum on Online Courts slays myth of ‘idealised version’ of the justice system but not everyone agrees that ‘unique quality of digital’ can improve both fairness and efficiency
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NewsNews focus: Buying in to price transparency
New rules on publishing price and service information kick in this week. Enforcement will be light-touch at first, but marketeers say law firms should exploit the opportunity to showcase their wares
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NewsNews focus: Is the Royal Courts of Justice still fit for purpose?
The Royal Courts of Justice is one of London’s iconic sights but its outdated facilities cost millions to maintain. More needs to be done to turn this Gothic showpiece into a legal hub for the modern age
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NewsNews focus: 'Race to the bottom' on the high street?
Further deregulation of the market opens the door to a race to bottom on client protection, claims the Law Society. And there is no evidence it will boost access to justice