All News articles – Page 1388
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News
Criminal bar unfurls strike banner
Nine out of 10 criminal barristers are prepared to take direct action in protest against low and late payments, a survey by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has revealed as their leader for the first time sanctions ‘strike’ action. CBA chair Max Hill QC will ...
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One out, all out
The warning by Criminal Bar Association chair Max Hill QC today that barristers are prepared to strike - backed by a survey showing near unanimous outrage - is a watershed moment. Hill notes barristers’ reluctance to use their ‘ultimate weapon’, namely ‘stopping the courts’, to make ...
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Pro bono no substitute for legal aid - Wotton
Lawyers need to do more to bridge the gaps in access to justice caused by legal aid reforms, the Law Society president told an international conference in Russia. However he stressed that pro bono work is no substitute for a properly funded legal aid system. John ...
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Solicitor, are you?
'Solicitor, are you? I 'ad one of them law commissioners in the back of my cab the other day. You'll never guess what those stupid baskets - pardon my French - are up to now? They’ve only gone and launched a consultation on taxi and private hire services.
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Society ponders non-solicitor representation
Admission of non-solicitors to the Law Society has returned to the agenda following conference speeches by the president and his successor-but-one.
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Naive strategy
The government intends to clamp down on compensation claims arising from road traffic accidents. Apparently, the government regards solicitors as the ‘bad guys’ and insurers as the ‘good guys’.
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, May 1982 Letters to the editor (There is a) widely held view that all solicitors, regardless of specialisation or geographical location, are ‘on the gravy train’. This view has been deliberately and successfully peddled for a number of years ...
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Judicial review
Evidence - Claimants seeking judicial review of decisions of defendant secretary of state refusing to grant naturalisation R (on the application of AHK and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Ouseley): 2 ...
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The joy of tech
Young Mr McVeighty should take heart and embrace a laptop. Ten years ago, I thought that I would be able to retire without touching a computer. I am now a converted enthusiast.
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Giving hard-up graduates hope
I have read the various exchanges, following the initial open letter on the Gazette website from the (clearly desperate) Legal Practice Course graduates. The issue, from my perspective, is not the minimum wage applicable to trainee solicitors, but more the lack of training contracts compared with the number of ‘qualifying’ ...
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French stick
Obiter had never understood why a bar president in France is called ‘le batonnier’ or ‘stick-person’. Unless it’s a reference to a slightly bigger version of a baguette called a ‘baton’, but that seems unlikely. And then enlightenment dawned when he met the president of the Paris bar, Christiane Féral-Schuhl ...
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News focus: progress report on legal profession
The Law Society’s 28th Annual Statistical Report might appear to be a rather desiccated agglomeration of facts, tables and bar charts. It is not an avowedly political document and, for that reason, raises more questions than it answers. As a snapshot of changing trends in the profession, however, the survey ...
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Straw flogs
Ex-justice secretary Jack Straw has earned more than a few bob since leaving office, as we first reported last week. But lest you got the wrong impression, the Blackburn MP’s extra-parliamentary activities have not been limited to worthy (if perhaps a tad prosaic) appearances in the Lancashire mill towns. Oh ...
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Great dictator
A veritable army of grave-looking gentlemen in grey suits fetched up at the Royal Festival Hall last week for Russell-Cooke’s solemn event ‘Enforcing Regulatory Standards in a Liberalised Market’. Appropriately, the profession’s über-regulator, Legal Services Board chair David Edmonds CBE, topped the bill.
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Taint of torture remains despite overlay of legal process
Let me begin with an outrageous position for any lawyer - let alone one who once specialised in criminal defence. I believe that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) is guilty of conspiracy to murder 2,977 people in, and over, the US on 11 September 2001. What is much more outrageous is ...
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Doing the deed
Increasingly, original title deeds are disappearing and we are ever more dependent on obtaining copies from the Land Registry. Yet again this morning an office copy lease has arrived with the plans uncoloured and a power of attorney which had no relevance included as a page of the lease. I ...
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Criminal law solicitors' director: value of justice ‘deteriorating’
The ‘march of managerialism’ and a desire to speed up proceedings have led to a drop in the value put on justice by the government and society, according to the retiring director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association. Rodney Warren (pictured) has announced that he will ...
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Sky targets new court filming rights
A TV executive campaigning to lift the ban on cameras in criminal courts has said the limited rights announced in last week’s Queen’s speech will not end the battle for access. ‘We’re obviously interested in discussing what extras we can do down the road,’ Simon Bucks, associate editor at Sky ...