All News articles – Page 1385
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News
Is it wrong to profit from divorce litigation?
There are some intriguing developments in the financing of divorce cases at the moment. Investment in divorce litigation hit the headlines earlier in the year with the high-profile divorce of Michelle Young from her millionaire former husband Scot, described in the press as a 'fixer’ for ...
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Call to halt referral fee ‘auctions’
A personal injury solicitor has accused insurance companies of ‘auctioning cases to the highest bidder’. John Spencer (pictured), director of Spencers Solicitors, said some insurers had conducted referral fee auctions amongst solicitors for bundles of cases. The price tag of these bundles was likely to be ...
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Eric Pickles, where are these Jubilee jobsworths?
Next week the nation will unite to celebrate the fact that an elderly woman isn’t dead yet. The Queen will reach her Diamond Jubilee, and as punishment she’ll have to suffer thousands of idiot well-wishers, the BBC disappearing up her backside and a concert featuring Ed ...
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The London Legal Walk: a show of solidarity
Times are hard in certain sections of the legal profession. There are many different views on what would be an appropriate response to the cuts in public funding scheduled to come into force in April 2013. Some believe that pro bono is a necessary safety net to protect the most ...
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Don’t rush into fee change, PI lawyers warn government
Personal injury lawyers have urged the government not to be rushed into radical changes to the low-value claims system. The government today closed its call for evidence and opinion on the future of the RTA Portal as it seeks to reduce the number of claims being ...
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Keeping the Pirates at Bay (or away from it)
In 2003, a group of friends living in Sweden launched a website which quickly became one of the most notorious sites on the internet - a file-sharing website known as The Pirate Bay. The High Court has now instructed five internet service providers (ISPs) to take measures to block their ...
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Will-writing and property firms bring ABS total to seven
Two niche firms specialising in will-writing and property respectively have become the latest two organisations to be accepted as alternative business structures (ABSs). Parchment Group, based in Buckinghamshire, and three-partner firm Plainlaw, based in Oxfordshire, had their applications confirmed this week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ...
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Sole ‘success’
Viv Williams’s recent comments really rubbed salt into a wound which was just beginning to heal. I set up my practice 25 years ago and operated as a sole practitioner for all of those years, highly successfully. I had a superb, loyal following which resulted ...
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Persistence pays off
Edward Foster suggests it is unfair that so few LPC students secure a training contract and that a three-year postgraduate professional apprenticeship may be the way forward. The abolition of the minimum trainee ‘wage’ agreed last week should also help.
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Managing stress
We at LawCare were sorry to read the letter of 10 May from Jean Booth. Sadly her experience of stress leading to debilitating and ultimately career-ending depression is one we hear only too often on the LawCare helpline. We would reiterate Ms Booth’s advice - if you are juggling the ...
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Intellectual property
Patents Court - Jurisdiction Suh and another v Ryu and others: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 3 May 2012 The Patents County Court held that regulation 3(2)(b) of the ...
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Intellectual property
Patent - Infringement - Order for destruction Merck Canada Inc and another v Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 3 May 2012 The Patents County Court granted ...
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Upholding human rights
Bryan Nott’s Comment takes to task the call to UK firms to set up in Colombia and expresses clearly the dangerous situation of trade unionists in Colombia: ‘Three out of five trade unionists murdered worldwide are in Colombia’.
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Spousal maintenance - how much and for how long?
These two questions vex even the most experienced family law practitioners. Disputes over spousal maintenance often preclude an early settlement. Many practitioners have also commented that the approach to an award of spousal maintenance around the country is widely inconsistent, with regional variations being particularly noticeable.
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A helping hand: sponsorship programmes
Corporations on both sides of the Atlantic are introducing formal sponsorship programmes to propel women and other under-represented groups into very senior roles. Law firms that want to boost diversity at the top of their organisations and improve their business performance should take note. In the US, notes Deborah Epstein ...
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Foot loose
HM Judiciary, represented here by the master of the rolls and lord chief justice, hit a distinctive sartorial note on Monday’s London Legal Walk. T-shirts and trainers were worn, but frequently over double-cuffed shirts and ties, and creased trousers. Exotic headgear was optional. Despite the mature ...
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Young ones face the music
They braced themselves like naughty schoolchildren outside the headmaster’s office expecting a thrashing. The Junior Lawyers Division was always on a hiding to nothing by electing to attend last week’s public session of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board. ‘Do we get to actually speak in the ...
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News
Insolvency exemption in latest no win, no fee U-turn
Insolvency cases will be exempt from no win, no fee reforms until April 2015, the government has revealed in its second climb-down in its struggle to overhaul the civil justice system. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said today that insolvency practitioners need longer to adjust to ...