All News articles – Page 1430
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News
SRA sorry for online delays
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has apologised for further delays to online renewals of practising certificates as it starts to clear a backlog of applications. The SRA’s new mySRA system, which replaces paper forms and cheques, has been the subject of widespread criticism in the profession.
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Sound defence
I write in defence of advocates representing mentally ill clients. I am concerned that your article promulgates the common perception that lawyers see mental health advocacy as an ‘easy ride’ in comparison with advocacy in other fields.
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Court swapping
John Edwards, who wrote in January, will be reassured to know that the common occurrence of cases swapping between courts is one the Crown Prosecution Service has planned for in the new digital world.
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Top Lib Dem was given the task of taking the pain for Conservative-led reforms
The Scots don’t play much cricket. But Lord Wallace of Tankerness, former Lib Dem leader north of the border and now advocate general for Scotland, showed he can wield the straightest of bats during the lords debate on part 2 of LASPO. The courtliness of ...
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Online confusion
Feeling in masochistic mood, I filed my tax return on a recent Sunday morning and applied online for the new SRA practising certificate in the afternoon.
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Fury over ‘chaos’ in central civil claims processing
A ‘totally chaotic’ scheme to slash costs and processing times for civil claims has prompted around 100 individual complaints to the Law Society’s council member for civil litigation. The complaints concern Salford Business Centre (SBC), also known as the National Civil Business Centre, which is HM ...
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National Civil Business Centre and county court claims
Normally changes to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) made in December come into force the following April. However, the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 4) Rules 2011 (SI 2011/3103) made on 21 December 2011, come into force on 19 March. They deal with one topic only, namely the establishment of the ...
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Deech: barristers and solicitors should share training
Barristers and solicitors should share most of their training, the chair of the Bar Standards Board has proposed. Lady Deech (pictured) told students at Oxford University last week that the new structures in which lawyers can practise, and the severe shortage of pupillages, have called into question the way both ...
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Moving banks
In his article on HSBC and conveyancing, Jonathan Smithers rightly says that solicitors may take steps to steer clients away from HSBC.
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McNally unmoved as he rejects third-party capture ban
Justice minister Lord McNally has reiterated that the government has no intention of banning insurers from third-party capture. Speaking during Wednesday’s House of Lords debate on civil litigation reform, McNally said there was no proof that accident victims were harmed by a direct approach from insurance ...
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Bailiffs beware
Thank goodness for Jonathan Djanogly. The justice minister may look as if he has his name and job title sown on to his underpants, but under it all he is a tough guy. Djanogly’s latest ministerial statement fearlessly takes on a formidable target - bailiffs - by issuing an update ...
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Compensation awards restored to solicitors
The body that pays compensation to victims of violent crime has backed down in the face of a judicial review challenge and restored its policy of paying awards directly to solicitors. In a related development, it is also to allow legal fees to be paid out ...
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Mirror wills invalidated by signature mix-up, appeal judges rule
A simple mix-up when a husband and wife signed mirror wills 13 years ago means they have no value in law, the Court of Appeal ruled today. The ruling disinherits the couple’s intended heir and has left lawyers calling for a more flexible approach to probate law. ...
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Morale low among Ministry of Justice staff
Evidence of poor morale among staff at the Ministry of Justice has emerged from the civil service’s annual ‘people survey’. Among its findings is that staff at the ministry and its agencies have no confidence in decisions made by senior managers. Only 32% of respondents would recommend the MoJ as ...
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Law centres warn on legal aid cuts
Law centres will close, leaving ‘many thousands’ of the poor and marginalised without access to justice if the government’s legal aid cuts are implemented, peers have warned. In a short debate this week, Labour’s former legal aid minister Lord Bach asked what assessment the ...
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Good advice?
The Gazette of 19 January contained two separate items that can be usefully linked: one a call to help the public, the other a warning of how such help can be turned against us.
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Firms warned over letters to Citizens Advice clients
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned firms that they could risk breaching the code of conduct by contacting individuals directly on behalf of clients if those individuals are represented by Citizens Advice.
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Law Society outlines initiatives to reinforce access to justice
The Law Society vice-president has outlined initiatives to bolster access to justice following the government’s proposed legal aid reforms - but stressed that Chancery Lane has not given up its opposition to the cuts. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff (pictured) told the Gazette that the Society has given ‘a ...
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An ABS game-changer as UK says g’day to Aussies
Those Aussies just can’t resist a bit of competition. From their cricket team beating us with depressing regularity in the 1990s to Paul Hogan ('you call that a knife?'), it seems a nation devoted to one-upmanship. So we shouldn’t be too surprised to see an Aussie ...