All News articles – Page 1369
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The official ‘legal services provider’ role will become commonplace
by Tim Jones, lead partner on London 2012 at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer When the flame is lit on 27 July and the London 2012 Olympic Games are officially declared open, it is not just our athletes who will have had an unrepeatable opportunity.
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Local authority
Social services - Adoption - Freeing orders remaining in place Re A & S (children) (failed freeing order): Family Division, Liverpool District Registry (Mr Justice Peter Jackson): 21 June 2012 ...
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Assurance scheme will protect the public
The Quality Assurance Scheme for Criminal Advocates (QASA) is soon to become a reality. From January next year, for the first time all criminal advocates, including barristers, solicitors and legal executives, will be assessed against a set of common standards to assure the quality of criminal advocacy in courts in ...
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Asking the right questions
It is the sort of thing that gives lawyers a good name. MPs spent three hours last week debating Labour’s call for an ‘independent, forensic, judge-led public inquiry’ into the culture and professional standards of the banking industry.
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Hope over asbestos claims fund
Time is running out for the government to meet its self-imposed deadline to create a contingency fund for asbestos-related disease claims. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the House of Commons last week he hoped to make an announcement before the summer recess, which begins next Wednesday. ...
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Law applicants unfazed by tuition fee rise
The number of students applying to read law at university appears to have held up well this year, despite a near 9% fall in applications across all degree subjects in the UK. Statistics released earlier this week by UCAS reveal that 50,000 fewer UK applicants have ...
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Age concern
Bad news for the nation’s senior judges last week, with confirmation that the mandatory retirement age of 70 will continue to stand. Justice secretary Ken Clarke (pictured) told the House of Commons that relaxing the compulsory age would mean judges of all kinds might enjoy a job for life. ‘If ...
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Final consultation launched on advocacy accreditation
A fourth - and ‘final’ - consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) published today contains a number of ‘significant’ changes that solicitors’ representative groups have welcomed.
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Judicial applications up 17%
A record number of candidates applied for judicial appointments last year, the Judicial Appointment Commission’s latest annual report reveals. There were 5,490 applications in 2011-12, of which 746 resulted in the appointment of tribunal chairs, recorders, district judges, deputy district judges, circuit judges and high court ...
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Don’t cut corners, LeO warns firms
Competition from new market entrants is forcing law firms to offer services and prices they cannot hope to deliver, according to the Legal Ombudsman. In his second annual report, Adam Sampson (pictured) raises concerns that under-pressure firms are cutting corners and making unrealistic promises. He ...
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LSC improvements fail to satisfy auditor
The National Audit Office has qualified the Legal Services Commission’s accounts for the fourth year running due to overpayments made to providers. The LSC’s annual report, published today, revealed a substantial drop in expenditure in 2011-12, in large part reflecting the fact it funded almost a ...
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ABS pioneer condemns ‘over-qualification’ in firms
Law firms have for too long relied upon 'closed clubs of equity partners' to keep fees artificially high, a speaker from one of the first wave of alternative business structures told the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) Symposium in Manchester today.
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Mix and match
First let me say how pleased I am the Law Society backs the idea of a standard professional indemnity insurance proposal form. The process of getting quotes for indemnity insurance is made much more time-consuming by having to fill out a form for each broker or insurance company. I would ...
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IRA interviews judgment - history is the loser
This week a US appeal court was asked to choose between the value of law and justice on the one hand, and the value of political stability and academic history on the other. In ordering Boston College to hand over interviews conducted for an oral history project with a convicted ...
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Cuts opponents fuelled by self-interest, says Clarke
The lord chancellor has accepted that not enough progress has been made to increase judicial diversity - and labelled the profession’s lobbying over the legal cuts ‘predictable’ and not client-centred. Talking to Justice director Roger Smith last night in an event hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, ...
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Bar-solicitor divisions ‘music to government’s ears’
Two leading criminal lawyers have called for solicitors and barristers to stop arguing among themselves and unite, to promote their clients' interests and the justice system. President of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association Jim Meyer said both branches of the profession are struggling due to ...
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Djanogly: QOCS applies to all
Qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) will apply to all personal injury claimants no matter what their financial means, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed. In a written ministerial statement today, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) said there would be no financial test to determine eligibility. The new ...
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World Pride 2012
Photo gallery - New Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff was among the marchers at World Pride 2012 in London last weekend. The event saw the legal sector continue its tradition of marching together for equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around ...
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Are GCs prevented from forcing down fees?
I heard a depressing tale last week that will be familiar to many lawyers working in the in-house sector. A general counsel was dealing with a substantial piece of litigation. He had chosen to give the job to a good silver circle firm, and was very ...
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SRA eases insurers’ disclosure rules
Professional indemnity insurers will not be required to tell solicitors if their credit rating changes during the year of cover, regulators have decided. Following lobbying from the insurance industry, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has eased rules regarding insurers’ disclosure. Under the Qualifying Insurer’s Agreement approved earlier ...