All News articles – Page 1341
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News
Neuberger speaks out on judicial review
The president of the Supreme Court has expressed concern about the government’s plans to limit the number of judicial reviews. Giving evidence to the House of Lords constitution committee last week, Lord Neuberger said: ‘Any attack on judicial review, or any attempt to limit it, ...
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 20 February 2003Fixed fees fights Solicitors could find themselves embroiled in a new wave of hostility and test litigation over costs if there is no progress on extending fixed fees to post-issue. The warning comes as the government begins work on introducing ...
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Welsh law-making powers
by Theo Huckle QC, counsel general for Wales An event of considerable constitutional significance took place in the Supreme Court recently. It may have passed largely unnoticed outside Wales (and, to some extent, within Wales), but its implications for the law in Wales and England, as ...
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Wales says no to separation – for now
Wales will not have a separate legal jurisdiction for at least a decade, the country’s first minister confirmed today. Carwyn Jones (pictured) said the estimated £1.2bn cost of devolving the entire criminal justice system would put too much pressure on the Welsh budget. ...
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Plantagenet poltergeist?
Spooky tales from Leicester firm Denham Foxon & Watchorn. Its offices are famous for strange sightings and mysterious noises, and on wintry evenings solicitor Christl Hughes says her waste paper basket has been known to move of its own accord. Mice? Possibly. But Obiter is intrigued by another suggestion. ...
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Keystone offers £1 top-up insurance cover
Top-up legal expenses insurance cover with premiums that can be recovered after 1 April are being sold for just £1, the Gazette can reveal. After-the-event (ATE) insurer Keystone Legal is offering a product for cases insured by other legal expenses insurers that run out of cover, ...
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Bypassing lawyers would save £1.5bn, insurer claims
Removing lawyers altogether from the small-claims process would save each motorist an average £60 a year on their car insurance premiums, a major insurer today claimed. In a report into the personal injury sector Aviva called for claimants to go directly to the ‘at-fault’ insurer rather ...
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QC faces jail after pocketing VAT for 12 years
A London silk faces jail after being convicted of a £600,000 VAT fraud. Rohan Anthony Pershad QC, who practised from Thirty Nine Essex Street, was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court (pictured) today of one count of cheating the public revenue, between 1 June 1999 and 24 ...
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Keeping mum about hospitality
We would love to tell you all about the goings-on of Ministry of Justice officials. We’d especially love it if the official records showed individuals having cosy nights with the Association of British Insurers while they were formulating the latest squeeze on claimant lawyers. Sadly, we ...
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Regulate will-writing but not estate administration, LSB recommends
The Legal Services Board will today recommend to the lord chancellor that will-writing activities, but not estate administration, should be regulated. It is the first time that the board has recommended bringing new activities under the scope of the Legal Services Act. The Law Society ...
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Yorkshire firm to go into administration
Yorkshire law firm Atteys is to go into administration, putting at risk 140 jobs unless a buyer can be rapidly found. Finance director Andy Tuke said today: ‘As a result of continuing financial pressures, Atteys has engaged BDO Leeds to assist in looking for a buyer ...
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Majority against IFA referral move
A decision to lift restrictions on referrals to independent financial advisers was made despite the majority of consultation respondents opposing the move, the Gazette has learned. The Solicitors Regulation Authority decided last November to allow solicitors to refer clients to any financial adviser regardless of ...
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LSC drops legal aid contract changes
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to drop controversial changes to ongoing legal aid contracts following talks with the Law Society. The commission is tendering for new contracts in the runup to legal aid reforms coming into effect on 1 April and had sought to ...
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Air ambulance confusion
In the past few months the air ambulance community has discovered a problem where wills are being written listing the ‘Air Ambulance Service’ as a beneficiary. While the name ‘Air Ambulance Service’ has been used as a general phrase to describe services across the ...
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The trade deal to end all trade deals
The world’s two biggest economies have begun negotiating a deal to create a £3.3 trillion free-trade zone – and yet my pulse isn’t racing at the prospect of the biggest trade deal in history. (Three trillion is three followed by 12 zeros, although you probably knew that already.) ...
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European AML directive ‘unlikely to be effective’
The fourth European money laundering directive, published last week, is likely to impose significant but ineffective burdens on solicitors over the ‘vexing issue’ of identifying beneficial owners, the Law Society has warned.
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Maintenance pending suit applications
There are few reported cases in respect of maintenance pending suit applications. A recent example, however, was the appeal decision of Coleridge J in S v M [2012] All ER (D) 175 (Nov).
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Regulators’ approach to failures
We live in a free market economy. The Legal Services Act 2007 brings changed market forces to the legal services market and the Legal Services Board has a regulatory objective to encourage competition. Apparently well-capitalised new entrants or investors in existing ...
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Cobbetts’ debt recovery arm finds a buyer
Administrators today confirmed that the final unsold part of defunct law firm Cobbetts has been acquired.
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Assessing costs: a nasty shock
With the Court of Appeal’s recent judgment in Henry, much attention has focused on the new costs budgeting rules coming in this April as part of the Jackson reforms. But there is another change on its way that will also affect lawyers and costs professionals quite significantly – and its ...