All News articles – Page 1325
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News
‘Injustice’ is a dirty word
James Caan played an unsophisticated and ruthless mercenary (Santino Corleone) in The Godfather. His namesake is now given space on your front page to argue a similar philosophy.
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News
QASA designed to ‘destroy’
The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is designed to split the legal profession in order to destroy it, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association alleged. Michael Turner QC said QASA is not being introduced to protect the public from ‘rogue advocates’, but as a necessary precursor to one ...
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Libel damages
Damages – Assessment – Claimants having libellous comments made against them Cairns v Modi; KC v MGN Ltd: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Judge CJ, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury and Mr Justice Eady): 31 October 2012 ...
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Crystal-ball gazing
Some large corporations employ a ‘futurologist’. During any available downtime, such professional soothsayers may consider helping out those considering a career in the law. As was clear at the Gazette’s roundtable for junior lawyers, today the profession’s new entrants are often forced to juggle hefty debts with uncertain prospects.
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Judges could make ‘ill-informed’ decisions on costs, says Gloster
New costs management rules coming in next April may lead to ‘ill-informed’ decisions on legal costs by judges, a high-profile judge has warned. Mrs Justice Gloster, who was the trial judge in Boris Berezovsky’s failed claim against Roman Abramovich this summer, said that while she had ...
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Jackson ‘will fuel conflicts’
The Jackson reforms will heighten potential conflicts of interest where barristers are dealing directly with the public, experts at the bar conference warned last week. The reforms will alter the rules underpinning conditional fee agreements and introduce damages-based agreements, which will allow lawyers to take a ...
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Fall guy McCann gears up for conference
There was very nearly a nasty accident at the Motor Accident Solicitors Society conference in Manchester last week. As he waited to enter the lion’s den with a speech to delegates, Zurich’s motor claims manager Derek McCann disappeared from view. There was a hushed pause as the audience wondered whether ...
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Claims management regulation ‘won't be transferred’
The government will resist calls to transfer claims management regulation to another independent regulator. Justice minister Helen Grant (pictured) told a House of Commons debate last week that fundamental change was wrong at a time when reforms were tackling bad practice by the sector. ...
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Cheque mystery
On 12 September I sent an application to set aside a default judgment to Northampton. I was urged to send a cheque payable to an organisation by the name of ‘HM Courts and Tribunal Service’. My cheque was cashed on 3 October, since when I have heard nothing. I have ...
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Efforts to challenge domestic violence are welcome
Thank you to Wragge & Co and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for their commendable initiatives in challenging domestic violence. I experienced domestic violence over a number of years while a solicitor in a City law firm, my ex-husband being a solicitor in another City law firm.
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Cause for complaint
I read the article by John Hyde entitled ‘Progress slow on standards’ with increasing disgruntlement over my coffee on Friday morning.
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Client care is top priority
As a (thankfully now semi-retired) solicitor of another generation, I was completely taken aback by the publication of James Caan’s comments. The headline - in the magazine - is: ‘Dragons’ Den star: It’s about the money.’ Is it?
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Hooper: call police over ‘corrupt’ referral fees
A former Court of Appeal judge earlier this week called for lawyers who pay or receive ‘corrupt’ referral fees to be reported to the police. Lord Justice Hooper told the bar conference that the growth of referral fees, which ‘corruptly’ influence the choice of trial advocate, is the most pernicious ...
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BT snaps up legal software giant
Telecoms giant BT has announced its second foray into the legal services world with the £64m acquisition of a specialist supplier of law firm software. BT Retail announced this morning that it has agreed to pay £64.2m in cash for Tikit Group, which supplies financial and practice management systems to ...
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Kent firm Cripps brings in property expert
Expertise from the property industry is to guide expansion at Kent firm Cripps Harries Hall, the latest law firm to announce the appointment of a high-profile non-executive consultant. Christopher Digby-Bell (pictured), a director and general counsel at property investment business Palmer Capital, has been appointed ...
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Turn-up for the books
Thinking of people or cases that changed the law reminded me of the master escaper and burglar Alfie Hinds. He was convicted of a 1953 robbery mainly on the bitterly contested evidence of chief superintendent Herbert Sparks, who claimed to have found dust in Hinds’ trouser ...
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Video in courts ‘not being used’
Time is running out for the practice of leaving video suites in courts, the official in charge of computerising the justice system said last week. Paul Shipley, IT director at HM Courts & Tribunals Service, said the Ministry of Justice is demanding that ‘cashable savings’ ...
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Putting money before ethics
Granted there is much to criticise in the investment/business model of partnership but those are commercial problems that can be fixed privately. If they cannot, you walk, simple as that. Reading, however, that James Caan now owns a law firm, I ruefully thought back to a ...
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Society mental health scheme to become mandatory
Membership of the Law Society’s mental health accreditation scheme will be mandatory for legal aid practitioners from 2014, it emerged this week. A provision is to be added to the legal aid contract under which only people with accreditation will be entitled to provide legally ...
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Bar chief rebuffed over LSB closure
Calls from the bar for the disbanding of the Legal Services Board met with a cool reception from the government this week. Bar Council chair Michael Todd QC told the bar’s annual conference that the super-regulator was going ‘beyond its brief’ and creating ‘burdensome costs’. ...