All News articles – Page 1296
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News
Case management conferences – your war stories, please
A couple of months on from the Jackson start date, and life may not feel that different for litigators – just yet. But have you had your first post-Jackson case management conference?
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CPS under fire for failures in two serious cases
The Crown Prosecution Service has been criticised by two separate Crown court judges after sending an ‘incompetent’ advocate to prosecute a murder trial and for ‘lamentable failures’ that delayed a rape trial. In the first case, judge Richard Griffith-Jones, sitting at Warwick, ordered an investigation after a murder trial had ...
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More work, but conveyancers still cautious
Conveyancers have reported a 15% rise in work over the past year – although one in five fear the weak property market still poses a threat, according to a national survey. The poll of 320 solicitors and licensed conveyancers carried out by search provider SearchFlow found that 59% reported a ...
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‘Last chance saloon’ on costs
A leading academic has warned solicitors that judges will grant no more latitude to those who default on their case budgets. Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School told the Liverpool Law Society conference that firms exceeding their budget will be ‘in the deepest of trouble’. Regan, who assisted Lord ...
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In-house concern over compliance message
Most legal and compliance departments in Fortune-1000 companies report that systems designed to boost ethical and compliant behaviour in the rest of the business are not being properly communicated. In 63% of companies, internal performance standards in these areas are ‘neither clear nor adequately expressed’. That is the conclusion of ...
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MPs demand an end to interpreters contract
A parliamentary debate last week heard calls for the ‘shambolic’ court interpreters contract to be scrapped, as the service continues to miss performance targets. During a debate on the Commons Justice Committee’s damning report on the contract, shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter cited a press report about a Lithuanian interpreter ...
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Taylor Wessing looks to cut a quarter of secretarial posts
More than a quarter of secretarial roles are at risk of redundancy at top-20 firm Taylor Wessing. The international firm wants to cut its London-based secretarial staff by 26 roles and has started a 30-day consultation process with affected staff. A spokeswoman for the firm said voluntary redundancy would not ...
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Lawyering through the medium of dance
You would have thought Craig Holt, the mastermind behind the QualitySolicitors brand, would have enough on his plate keeping his 250-plus flock of branches in check. But apparently the pioneering brand whizzkid has time for a little covert calling as well. Holt and QS have been rather quiet in recent ...
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Malthouse to speak at Society marketplace event
Kit Malthouse, deputy London mayor for business and enterprise, will be the closing speaker at the Law Society’s International Marketplace 2013 conference in London on 9 July. The all-day event will highlight business opportunities in providing legal services for emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each session will ...
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 22 June 1988Sex discrimination should not be a disciplinary offence, says YSG Recent recommendations by a special Law Society working party that discrimination against women solicitors should be made a disciplinary offence and tax relief should be available for child care expenses, have been rejected by ...
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A plum position
This week’s gardening tip from Obiter: tootle on your clarinet to encourage soft fruits to mature. The tip came via Worcestershire plum charmer Paul Johnson (pictured), who also happens to be a partner at Pershore firm Thomson & Bancks. His role, in between county court and employment tribunal cases, is ...
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Where there’s a will, there’s a… won’t
Heartening news of a 29% productivity leap from our beloved consumer watchdog. The 2013 annual report of the Legal Services Consumer Panel runs to 36 electronic pages, up from 28 last year. That’s not all. Inside, Obiter reads that since 2011-12 the panel has ‘almost doubled the speeches and presentations ...
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Legal Charities Garden Party 2013
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Wiltshire solicitor’s murderer jailed for 28 years
A disgruntled litigant has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for the murder of Wiltshire solicitor Jim Ward. Michael Chudley, 63, shot Ward with a sawn-off shotgun on 2 July last year at the MGW Law building in Devizes. Chudley had ...
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Profits squeeze as top-50 firms open results season
Preliminary results posted today by three top-50 firms show profits falling in 2012-13 on modest rises in turnover. At Osborne Clarke, European mergers boosted turnover by 14% to £112m, according to its provisional results posted today. However like-for-like revenue was down ...
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Carbon footprint down 7% in legal sector
The Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and 57 law firms have reduced their per-head carbon emissions by nearly 7% since 2010, according to the sector’s annual environmental statement. The fall from 3.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010 to 3.63 tonnes of CO2e ...
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Don’t access all areas
It is clear that fraud on the Land Registry is increasing and takes various forms. Recently, there were pictures in the newspapers of an incident in a London street. The number plates on cars in the pictures were pixellated. Fair enough, I thought, given that the number plate might be ...
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Legal aid cuts ‘end high-profile BME cases’
High-profile cases such as those of murder victims Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbié would not have been taken up by lawyers if the government’s legal aid cuts had been in place, a prominent solicitor-advocate has warned. Imran Khan, partner at London firm Imran Khan & ...
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Legal aid champion Storer honoured
Carol Storer, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, was among the lawyers recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list at the weekend. Storer (pictured) received an OBE for services to legal aid. She has been LAPG director for the past five years, since leaving Shelter ...