All News articles – Page 1328
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News
Goodbye to the profession
I must agree with David Kirwan’s comments regarding the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates.
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News
PC renewal system makes further progress
More than 1,000 practising certificate renewals were approved within five days of the 2012 process opening, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said this week, despite a software bug causing frustration in the first days. Registration through the mySRA website opened on 1 November for solicitors renewing ...
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SRA rebuffed over fining powers
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is reviewing its options after the Ministry of Justice declined its request for tougher fining powers against ‘traditional’ law firms. In May, the regulator applied to the MoJ to have the maximum fine it can impose on law firms raised from £2,000 ...
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Stamp out referral fees
The Law Society could not be further from the mark in accusing the Bar Council of ‘confusing the public interest with barristers’ interests’ in relation to the guidance which the Bar Council offers the profession on referral fees.
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European Union
Intellectual property rights – Database rights – Infringement Football Dataco Ltd and other companies v Sportradar GmbH and another company: Court of Justice of the European Union (Third Chamber) (Judges Silva de Lapuerta, Acting as President of the ...
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Employment
Redundancy – Dismissal by reason of redundancy – Whether tribunal erring SNR Denton UK LLP v Kirwan and another: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr Justice Langstaff): 10 July 2012 The Employment ...
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Dyson dismay
I was dismayed to read that the master of the rolls has called upon the profession to ensure that the forthcoming ‘reforms’ do not undermine access to justice. Just how does he expect solicitors to achieve this?
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Why a lawyer makes a difference
The article about Lord McNally’s speech to the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group brought memories flooding back to me. Fifteen years ago we asked our local education authority for a statement of special educational needs for our second son, who suffers from dyslexia and who was getting ...
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Truth statement plan to cut whiplash fraud
Whiplash claimants or their solicitors should be forced to sign a written statement of truth and be prosecuted for fraud if they breach it, personal injury lawyers have proposed in a plan to head off parliamentary criticism. The signed commitment is one element of a 10-point ...
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Learning curve: doing an MBA
Today’s challenging economy combined with uncertainty in the legal sector has brought more lawyers around to the idea of supplementing their legal knowledge with a business education. Training contracts are being deferred, redundancies are continuing and lawyers are considering their career options. A Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is a ...
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News
Let him be crucified
The justice secretary’s order of an ‘immediate review’ of legal aid bodes ill for the way funding decisions will be made once the Ministry of Justice takes the Legal Services Commission in-house.
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Privilege fight taken to Supreme Court
Insurer Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend the rule of legal professional privilege was heard this week. The case follows a 2010 Court of Appeal ruling that legal privilege should not apply to any professional group other than qualified lawyers. The Law Society won permission last year to ...
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Unjustifiable PC renewal cost
I have just renewed my practising certificate for 2012/13. Between last year and this, our firm’s annual turnover has fallen by £13,000. You will therefore understand my astonishment to find that, although last year I paid £1,551 to renew, this year it has cost £2,278. ...
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Negligence: snails, golf clubs and tree roots
Since the decomposed remains of a snail were found in a bottle of ginger beer in a Paisley cafe in 1928 (the famous case of Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] All ER Rep 1, which underpins the modern law of negligence) we have all been expected to take reasonable care not ...
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Chancery Lane hits out at LETR over claim
The Law Society has hit back at claims that the current system of legal education and training is unfit for purpose. In a critical response to a discussion paper published by the cross-professional Legal Education and Training Review (LETR), the Society says it is ‘not aware of clear evidence that ...
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Law centres ponder structure switch
Law centres are exploring a range of new business models to survive – but few are likely to take the alternative business structure route, the director of the centres’ umbrella body said this week. Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Network (formerly the ...
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Cause for complaint
Chief legal ombudsman Adam Sampson appears unwilling to engage in a proper dialogue, insisting as he does that the consultation about publication is ended and the decision to publish is fixed. He did not mention the judicial review claims against the LeO that this policy has encouraged.
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Watching brief
With publications closing left, right and centre, three cheers to the Legal Services Consumer Panel for filling a gap. Obiter has just received issue one of Consumer Brief, our beloved watchdog’s quarterly electronic update. Panel chair Elisabeth Davies’s outings to the International Bar Association and ...
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Firms must rethink how to tap into energy boom
Flashpoints in the international energy industry, from oil drilling in the Arctic to gas field disputes in the eastern Mediterranean, will mean big opportunities for law firms – if they are prepared to reassess how they practise, according to City consultants. A report published last week ...