All News articles – Page 1290
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News
History book; care home fees; charging charities
Thursday marks a key milestone in the history of local government lawyers. John Emms (former solicitor to the council at Kirklees MBC) will publish his book Local Lawyers: Public Practice. As Solicitors in Local Government merges with its chief officer counterpart, the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors, the book ...
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The Children and Families Bill could undermine gender stereotypes
by Charlotte Bradley, a family partner, andMichelle Chance an employment partner, at Kingsley Napley On 25 February, MPs passed the new Children and Families Bill at its second reading in the House of Commons. The bill extends the statutory rights – in employment and family law ...
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Society: SRA should invite bids for failures’ caseloads
The Law Society has suggested that the Solicitors Regulation Authority should invite firms to bid for work from failed firms to cut the cost of interventions, the Society’s chief executive revealed last night. Desmond Hudson (pictured) was addressing the Conveyancing Association, following the SRA’s revelation earlier ...
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UK is best for litigation, says justice secretary
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has sent a message to the world that the UK is cheaper, quicker and more reliable for litigation disputes. Grayling gave a keynote speech at the UK headquarters of Allen & Overy yesterday to stress his commitment to exporting legal services abroad. ...
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No ‘stay of execution’ from banks for PI firms
Personal injury firms will struggle to convince banks that they are viable when fees are slashed next month, an insolvency expert has warned. Practices across the country have begun making redundancies ahead of fixed recoverable costs being cut by 60% at the end of April, the ...
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Grieve backs greater police role in prosecutions
Police should take over the prosecution of more ‘routine non-contested cases ’, the attorney general suggested last night. Dominic Grieve QC said ...
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Family law arbitration wins
Does this ring a bell? You sit opposite a client whose face gradually lengthens, whose mouth drops and whose eyes widen in dismay and disbelief as you describe how long it takes to bring matrimonial financial issues to a conclusion through the court litigation process. You ...
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National firm takes up higher apprenticeship scheme
National firm Weightmans says it is the first to offer entry into the legal profession via the new higher apprenticeship in legal services. The undergraduate level qualification, which launches today, is part of a government initiative to create more higher level vocational qualifications, increasing access to ...
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ATE rush prompts another ‘emergency’ cover product
An after-the-event insurer has introduced a new emergency insurance product to cope with the surge in demand from solicitors in the run-up to 1 April. Keystone Legal said the product would enable it to issue policies ahead of the April deadline, when the Jackson reforms ...
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Legal help must be restored to all private law children disputes
The result of enormous effort and faith, The Children Act 1991 enshrined the rights of children in family law as paramount. Yet the regulations that will come into effect on 8 April will seriously undermine all the good work and progress made to date. For the ...
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Half of all tribunal fines remain unpaid
Nearly half of the solicitors fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in recent years have avoided paying those fines in full, figures obtained by the Gazette reveal. Of 579 cases since 2008 in which such a penalty was imposed, the fine has yet to be ...
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All doomed?
Monday’s news that midlands firm Blakemores, with a headcount of 250-plus, is the subject of an SRA intervention – effectively confirming that the SRA believes that the firm’s finances mean it cannot safely continue to trade – may leave principals of smaller traditionally run firms, who are staring at diminishing ...
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Drug and Alcohol Court pioneers drink monitors
The judge leading London’s pioneering Family Drug and Alcohol Court has voiced concern that lack of money will stop families in care cases getting adequate support to turn their lives around. Judge Nicholas Crichton (pictured) spoke to the Gazette following the end of a three-month pilot ...
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Ending crime bosses’ ‘free ride’ on legal aid
Amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill announced today ‘will put an end to millionaire criminals refusing to reimburse the taxpayer’ for free legal advice, the government said. The move follows a long campaign by the legal profession. Under the current system, wealthy defendants can ...
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Criminal legal aid procurement
‘Competitive tendering’ – two words that strike fear and dread into the hearts of many a hardened criminal legal aid practitioner. But what do they mean, and why, after several failed attempts, is the government so keen to introduce this into a market that is almost unanimously opposed to the ...
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Unbundling may be the key to legal aid survival, president says
Offering pay-as-you-go legal advice could enable solicitors to help clients denied legal aid after 1 April and may help firms generate more work, the Law Society president suggested today. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff told the Society’s legal aid conference: ‘The reality is that for many clients who are ...
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Businesses cite human rights act in disputes
Businesses are increasingly using human rights arguments in commercial disputes, with the number of such cases increasing from 10 to 45 in four years, new research has revealed. A study by legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell reports cases in 2012 that included a radio station ...
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SRA brings 650 actions for COLP and COFA failures
Enforcement action has started against almost 650 solicitors or firms that failed to complete their compliance officer nominations properly, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed today. Antony Townsend, chief executive of the SRA, said action was necessary after a ‘concerning and disappointing’ level of non-co-operation and ...
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Blakemores intervention will cost up to £3m, managing partner says
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) intervention into Midlands firm Blakemores is likely to cost the profession ‘£2-3m’, the firm’s managing partner told the Gazette the day after all 250 members of staff were told to clear their desks. Guy Barnett said that £2-3m was his estimated ...