All News articles – Page 1320
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News
Grayling: No U-turn on pensions
The lord chancellor has refused calls to reconsider cuts to judicial pensions. Chris Grayling told the Lords constitution committee last week that exempting judges from austerity would ‘make them the target of public hostility’. Grayling also rebuffed peers’ calls for a statutory duty on the lord chief justice to create ...
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Litigation funding: joining the party
A few years ago, most solicitors would have had no notion of what third-party funding (TPF) was, and even fewer would have cared. But as banks become ever more reluctant to lend to law firms – and civil litigators begin turning their minds to how they will finance contingency fee ...
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Forging new links
I have recently returned from a fascinating visit to the People’s Republic of China where I and my colleague, Judy Ramjeet, lectured to a university and met Chinese lawyers. We were warmly greeted and the subjects upon which I spoke were received with courtesy and active interest by students, academics ...
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News Focus: RTA fees
Government plans to wipe £700 from each fixed fee paid in low-value personal injury cases will put firms out of business, increase the risk of negligence and harm victims of accidents, solicitors have warned.
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Employment
Unfair dismissal – Determination whether dismissal fair or unfair – Reasons justifying dismissal – Range of reasonable responses test Turner v East Midlands Trains Ltd: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Maurice Kay VP, Lord Justice Elias and Sir Stephen ...
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Drunk as a judge and lunchtime tipples
In these abstemious times, Obiter is delighted to discover that one of the great stock characters of legal anecdote, the judge who enjoys a snifter at lunchtime, is still with us. At least in the estimation of Conservative peer Lady Wheatcroft (pictured), who told a Lords committee last week that ...
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What is a disease?
A primary flaw in the Jackson reforms’ vision of the personal injury landscape is a profound inability to comprehend that the value of a claim in damages is but one of the variables which has to be assessed when applying the proportionality principle. In the UK, fault has to be ...
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The Law Society is right to develop a new model for engaging members directly
by Nigel Spencer, chief of commercial affairs at the Law Society Guy Goodman’s letter on the Recognised Groups Agreement and Solicitors in Local Government demonstrates a misunderstanding of the basis on which the Society is setting up the new divisions.
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Is Stop Delaying Justice! working?
Howard Riddle, the senior district judge and chief magistrate, recently delivered an update in the Gazette on the Stop Delaying Justice! case management initiative. Judge Riddle has done an amazing job in trying to limit the adverse impact of Ministry of Justice/HM Courts and Tribunals Service policy towards the courts ...
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Lawyers fight town hall cuts
A group of City pro bono lawyers is taking aim at local authority cuts affecting vulnerable elderly and disabled residents. The lawyers will scrutinise care fee contracts that councils seek to vary, and bring judicial reviews of cuts estimated to add up to £1bn. ...
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Lawyers’ core principles are under threat
It has been fashionable to speak about the future of lawyers in terms of commoditisation, standardisation and technology (yes, I am speaking about you, Richard Susskind). Those factors will clearly have their impact – even though to date, far from there being fewer lawyers as predicted, there are more and ...
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Society condemns new rules on IFAs
The Law Society has taken the unprecedented step of urging solicitors to ‘disregard’ their regulatory handbook, as a row brews over liberalisation of referrals for financial advice. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed this week that it will change the rules to allow solicitors to refer clients ...
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Complaints research
Further to your article ‘Call for ABS complaints data after fund rebuff’ in last week’s edition, I wanted to clarify the Law Society’s position on this issue, which was misrepresented in the article, and highlight further developments on this topic.
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CJC member rules out mandatory litigation funding code
There are no plans to change the voluntary code for third-party litigation funding, according to one of its creators. Professor Rachael Mulheron, a member of the Civil Justice Council, said the code was still appropriate one year on from its adoption. Speaking ...
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Fears over civil justice system ‘meltdown’
A six-month hiatus on sweeping personal injury reforms is necessary to avert a ‘meltdown’ of the civil justice system, Chancery Lane has said. The Law Society fears that an entirely new funding system, proposed last week by the Ministry of Justice, will be too much for ...
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Speeding up cases ‘risks miscarriages of justice’
Government plans to speed up criminal cases risk ‘significantly’ increasing the number of miscarriages of justice, the Law Society warned this week. Responding to a white paper setting out planned reforms of the criminal justice system, the Society stressed that dealing with cases swiftly must be ...
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Brave new world?
Ruth Wayte of the Legal Services Commission is excited about the Co-op’s recent bidding. ‘Advice deserts will cease to be a problem,’ she trills. These are of course advice deserts that have been carefully created by the LSC, and by the Legal Aid Board before ...
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A holistic approach
I have recently been on two courses on the forthcoming changes to the legal aid scheme. One was organised by the Law Society and the other by the Legal Services Commission. They were, more accurately, roadshows presented around the country and most were well supported. I will not say which ...
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How To: release an app
As web 2.0 technologies become an increasingly self-evident component of everyday life, organisations are confronted with a growing urgency to embrace and harness them, or risk losing touch with their clients’ changing needs. According to a recent survey, 45% of senior marketing executives consider social networks and applications a top ...
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Insurers annex civil justice
To survive and thrive, a legal system must be respected by all sides. However, this principle is surely now under challenge by the fixed payment system being introduced for personal injury work. So misconceived is the principle of fixed costs, and so low are ...