All News articles – Page 1512
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News
Human Rights Institute questions Sri Lanka's judicial independence
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has written to the Sri Lankan government to voice its concerns about the erosion of judicial independence in the country. IBAHRI expressed particular concern about constitutional amendments limiting the chief justice’s term of office to five years, and ...
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HMRC may stall lawyers’ taxis
Late-working City lawyers could soon find themselves rubbing shoulders with office cleaners and other shift workers on the night bus if plans to abolish tax relief on late-night taxis are carried through by HM Revenue & Customs. Where employees are required to work significantly later than ...
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Head for heights
Kingsbury solicitor Manish Patel (pictured) is to embark on a 13-day trek to the Mount Everest base camp in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal next February, in aid of the International Childcare Trust. He will endure some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth. ...
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The funding solution
Sound financial management has become a key issue for law firms as for the first time banks are closely scrutinising lending to these legal companies and implementing new credit policies. It is worth looking at how law firms can effectively demonstrate their financial acumen in ...
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Law firms and retirement
Until 6 April, law firms could safely give notice to ‘retire’ employed staff at 65 under the default retirement age (DRA) exemption. Provided they followed the correct statutory retirement process, the retirement would be ‘fair’ with no age-discrimination risk. Indeed, ...
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Criminal evidence
Criminal procedure - Criminal appeals - Fresh evidence - Identification R v George Davis: CA (Crim Div): (Lord Justices Hughes (Vice-President), Henriques, Macur): 24 May 2011 The appellant (D) appealed ...
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Criminal procedure
Criminal evidence - Human rights - Scottish devolution issues - Miscarriage of justice Stephanie Baker (Respondent) v (1) Nat Gordon Fraser v HM Advocate: SC (Lords Hope (Deputy President), Rodger, Brown, Kerr, Dyson): 25 May 2011 ...
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Scottish government to review role of Supreme Court
The Scottish government has set up a panel of experts led by a former solicitor general for Scotland to review the ‘aggressive’ intervention of the Supreme Court in Scotland’s legal affairs. The review was sparked by growing disquiet among Scottish politicians and lawyers at the Supreme ...
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Nine non-solicitors to join and vote on Scottish law society council
The Law Society of Scotland has appointed nine new non-solicitor members to its council, to comply with new legislation. They have full voting rights and will replace the current three lay observers. The new appointees come from a diverse range of backgrounds ...
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Patient data leaked to personal injury claims worker
A claims company employee has been fined after using his former girlfriend to obtain patients’ confidential records. Martin Campbell (pictured) was supplied with the personal data of 29 people by his then partner Dawn Makin, who worked as a nurse at walk-in health centres in Bury. ...
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Civil procedure
Conflict of laws - Jurisdiction - Stay of proceedings Striborg Ltd v (1) FKI Engineering Ltd (2) FKI Ltd: CA (Civ Div): (Lord Justices Mummery, Rix, Wilson): 25 May 2011 ...
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Tighten rules to protect young witnesses, say charities
Children’s charities have called for ground rules to be enforced in court to prevent the exploitation of young witnesses. A report released this week by the NSPCC and Nuffield Foundation found that inadequate procedures and a lack of training for legal professionals were having detrimental effects ...
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Lawyers charging consumers for complaints - research
Lawyers are failing to advise consumers how to go about making complaints and in some cases are charging people for complaining, research by the Legal Services Board (LSB) has found. A survey of dissatisfied legal customers by YouGov revealed more than half were never told about ...
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Instituting change
If you thought the Women’s Institute was all about making jam and cakes, think again. Members of the WI took part in protests against legal aid cuts last week, demonstrating the extent to which the campaign has now moved beyond just lawyers. ...
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Sound Off campaigners deliver Downing Street letter
Supporters of the Law Society's Sound off for Justice campaign delivered a letter to Downing Street yesterday urging Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene and withdraw the planned £350m cut to legal aid. The letter was delivered by members of the Law Society and Rheagan Hendry, ...
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Jackson reforms could trigger business debt headache
Insolvency experts have warned that civil litigation funding reforms could deter small businesses from trying to reclaim debts. Provisions in the government’s forthcoming Justice Bill will prevent successful claimants from recouping their solicitors’ success fee from losing defendants, or recovering an after-the-event insurance premium. ...
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Solicitor-advocates seek to block evaluation scheme
Solicitor-advocates will make a last-ditch attempt in the coming weeks to halt plans for compulsory evaluation of their performance by judges. Up to 1,400 advocates who handle criminal cases are set to be formally assessed from next spring as part of the Quality Assurance Scheme for ...
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Game blame
Matrimonial lawyers will probably be familiar with the latest trend reported by internet divorce provider Divorce Online. The service conducted a survey of 200 cases in which women had cited unreasonable behaviour, and found that a sizeable 15% had filed for divorce because their husband ...
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Human Rights laws stand before May's calls to stop student radicalisation
by Julian Gizzi, a partner in Beachcroft’s public sector group Home secretary Theresa May has said this week that universities need to be more active in preventing the radicalisation of their students by extremist Islamic groups.