All News articles – Page 1454
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News
‘Long way to go’ on diversity, warn lawyers
The legal profession’s progress towards diversity may be about to falter, lawyers warned at this week’s launch of the Black Solicitors Network’s sixth annual Diversity League Table. They warned that women and black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers remain under-represented in the higher echelons of the ...
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Damage limitation
In Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd v Pritchard [2011] EWCA Civ 329, [2011] All ER(D) 312 (Mar), the Court of Appeal considered whether contributory negligence could be raised as a defence to a claim for damages for the torts of assault and battery.
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How confidential?
We all know that confidentiality is the bedrock of a solicitor’s duty to his client. But how many conveyancing solicitors freely discuss their client’s business on the telephone with the selling agents of other parties, solicitors not connected with the client’s own transaction? And how ...
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Supreme Court’s ruling on cohabitees welcomed
Family lawyers have welcomed the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment on the division of assets between former cohabiting couples - but say the case highlights the need for law reform. The long-awaited judgment in Jones v Kernott concerns beneficial interest in property where the legal ...
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Coffin up for death
Here’s some news to cheer up our probate colleagues. Naturally, it concerns death and taxes. The Trouble with Dying, Sun Life Direct’s annual survey into the cost of dying, has concluded that the average final bill for joining the choir invisible has risen by £436 to £7,248 over the past ...
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Coalition to lobby Lords on referral fees
A coalition of insurers and lawyers is to lobby for tougher measures banning referral fees. The Civil Justice Group aims to promote a private member’s bill introduced by the former justice secretary, Jack Straw, which would make paying or receiving referral fees a criminal offence. A ...
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Ex-Minster Law chief unveils claims.com
A Leeds-based claims management company which paid a seven-figure sum for its web address opens for business this week, with a strategy that includes buying its own law firm and becoming an alternative business structure. Chief executive Matthew Briggs, who formerly led the Yorkshire personal injury ...
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Chief magistrate praises defence solicitors over riots
The chief magistrate has praised the ‘exemplary skill and professionalism’ of defence solicitors in the summer riot courts, calling them ‘unsung heroes’. Senior district judge Howard Riddle said that without defence solicitors’ efforts the criminal justice system would not have been able to respond as it did to the unprecedented ...
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Xmas cheer
Like Obiter, you may be a curmudgeon who dreads Christmas as a time for suffering relatives who have the temerity to earn more than you. If so, we have the perfect antidote to festive gloom - More Morello Letters, the sequel to the much-loved Morello ...
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Bankruptcy
Trustee in bankruptcy - Costs - Claimant trustee in bankruptcy commencing proceedings on behalf of estate Hunt (as trustee in bankruptcy of Janan George Harb) v Harb and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Neuberger, Lords Justice ...
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We must not swallow the argument that the police and courts initially responded well to the riots
I absolutely agree with Julian Young in respect of the under-acknowledged efforts of defence practitioners at the time of the riot arrests and courts.
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Under starter’s orders - but they’re off already
There’s a wonderful moment of organised chaos at the start of every Grand National. No-one knows when the starting tape will lift, so the horses jostle and fidget, overcome by nervous tension and desperate to get started.
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Alcoholism in profession ‘underestimated’
Widely publicised research findings that 15-24% of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers may underestimate the problem, the legal health support charity LawCare said this week. Among senior solicitors the figure is nearly one in three, a spokeswoman told the Gazette.
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‘Last chance’ to stop legal aid cuts - Khan
Only the House of Lords can preserve the notion of equality for everyone before the law, the shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan writes in the Gazette today. On the eve of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill reaching the Lords, Khan says ...
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Shock as firms fail in family legal aid bid
An unexpectedly high number of failed applications for family legal aid contracts has caused surprise in the sector. The Legal Services Commission announced this week that 93% of those who bid for the new family law contracts had been successful. Contracts have been offered to ...
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Labour peers are preparing to mount a last stand against legal aid cuts
By the Rt. Hon Sadiq Khan MP, shadow lord chancellor and shadow secretary of state for justice and constitutional affairs Earlier this month, despite opposition from the Labour Party, charities and campaigning groups from the Law Society to the Women’s Institute, government plans to slash social ...
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Civil advice phone gateway plan slammed
Government plans to make phone calls the main conduit for publicly funded advice in civil cases could increase the average time needed to give advice, according to new research. The government has proposed making a telephone helpline the ‘gateway’ to all legal aid advice in civil ...
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LASPO may ‘undermine access to justice’, says Lords committee
A House of Lords committee has warned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill threatens the rights of access to justice and availability of legal advice to those in police custody. The Constitution Committee published a report today considering the constitutional implications of ...