All News articles – Page 1428
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News
No win, no fee climb down: a case of double standards
Is the government losing its nerve on no win, no fee reforms? The overhaul of the civil justice system was supposed to have been rubber-stamped when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act was given royal assent earlier this month.
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Client confusion
The occasional articles by the Legal Ombudsman should give us all cause for concern. Historically we have, in these articles, had our clients described as ‘customers’ or ‘consumers’. Even the lay members of the ombudsman service ought to know that it is shopkeepers who have customers and regional or national ...
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'Customer' or 'client'?
I popped in to the doctor’s yesterday but I had to wait because my GP was busy with another customer. Actually, I was a bit late for my appointment. I’d just got off the phone to my child’s teacher. She’s always keen to chat because my family is one of ...
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Close shave
With his boss in Russia promoting London’s legal services, it was left to under-secretary of state for justice Jonathan Djanogly to take justice questions in parliament last week. Responding to Liberal Democrat Tom Brake, the minister, known for his attention to detail during the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing ...
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Clutching at Straw
Jack Straw has trousered well north of £100,000 in extra-parliamentary earnings since the last election. A commodity trader, a private equity house and even a military thinktank have all paid handsomely for the peripatetic Blackburn MP’s services, as Obiter has recounted.
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Contempt of court
Appeal against committal order - Defendant failing to comply with restraint order and being committed to prison for contempt of court R v OB: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Gross, Mr Justice Openshaw, Judge Milford QC): 2 May 2012 ...
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Criminal evidence
Hearsay - Document - Whether conviction on count 1 unsafe R v Ibrahim: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Aikens, Mr Justice Field and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC): 27 April 2012 ...
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SRA defends trainee minimum salary cut
Scrapping the trainee minimum salary will increase, rather than hinder, diversity in the profession, a senior regulator has insisted. Samantha Barrass, executive director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, was speaking after SRA board members voted to deregulate the minimum salary at their meeting last week. Following ...
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Decision to scrap the trainee minimum salary was ill-considered and nonsensical
by Hekim Hannan, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division Last week the SRA abolished the trainee minimum salary, currently £18,590 in Central London and £16,650 elsewhere.
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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...