All News articles – Page 1546
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News
Crown Prosecution Service misdirection
The government has no money. Legal aid is under threat. The Law Society strategy for savings takes a broader view of the legal system than government is capable of doing because of departmental and executive agency demarcations. As a result, ...
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Crippen yarn
A recent case where a husband was alleged to have given his wife sleeping tablets so that he could romp with his girlfriend reminded me of the Crippen murder, 100 years old last year, writes James Morton. In July 1910, a decayed body which was ...
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Uren v Corporate Leisure (UK) Ltd and Ministry of Defence
Mr Uren was a member of the RAF who suffered a spinal injury when taking part in a ‘health and fun day’, during which he dived head first into an inflatable pool containing water with a depth of 18 inches while competing to collect pieces of plastic fruit. ...
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War of the words: how the government controls the debate with new legal lexicon
Ministers in the coalition government don’t talk about ‘fat cat lawyers’. This may be because policy-makers are moving on from an unhelpful cliche as they prepare to cut legal aid, or it could be because any focus on high rewards turns the public’s ...
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EU lawmakers warned over contract harmonisation
The government has told EU lawmakers that they should not legislate to harmonise European contract laws because there is a ‘paucity of evidence’ that a problem exists. In its response to a European Commission consultation on the issue, the Ministry of Justice said that the commission ...
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Considering the statutory obligation on landlords to protect tenants’ deposits
Since 6 April 2007, the well-worn road of disputes about the return of tenants’ deposits has taken a new turn with the statutory obligation on the landlord to protect the deposit within an authorised tenant deposit scheme (section 213 Housing Act 2004). ...
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Civil procedure
Legal profession - Course of conduct - Defence statements - Harassment Iqbal v Dean Manson Solicitors: CA (Civ Div) (Lady Justice Smith, Lords Justices Rix, Richards): 15 February 2011 The ...
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Brussels doubt
Obiter applauds the Law Society’s human rights team, whose prompt action has helped save many hundreds of pounds of BBC licence payers’ money. Researchers at the BBC’s The One Show wrote to the Society to say that they planned to find out more ...
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'Frightened’ Bradford solicitor paid out money ‘under duress’
A Bradford solicitor who claimed she had been threatened and forced to pay out £520,000 of clients’ money under duress was suspended from practice by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last week. Taslim Khan, 41, of Rasool Solicitors, in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, admitted improperly withdrawing clients’ money, ...
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UK borders ‘less secure’, say Home Office immigration staff
UK immigration staff charged with policing the nation’s borders believe that borders have become less secure as a result of government changes to immigration law, Home Office research has indicated. A study ...
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Legal Services Board should get the job done
Is it appropriate for a regulatory overseer to be an evangelist for that which it would oversee, particularly when the consequences of ‘regulatory capture’ in the financial services industry are so painfully uppermost in the public mind?
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Sir Geoffrey Bindman joins Iran protest
High-profile human rights solicitor Sir Geoffrey Bindman spoke in support of democracy at a protest against the Iranian government last week, organised by the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. Bindman said: ‘Change is coming in the Middle East, and that would include the liberation of ...
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Legal small-business bashing?
Ken Clarke should not judge all lawyers by the standards of the few. Perhaps the statute-chasing, ambulance-following, human rights adherents he so loathes are indeed lurking in huddles just waiting to make millions out of every piece of small business-crushing legislation created by the 1,300 ...
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Get off the bandwagon
Should you really be congratulating Lawrence Davies in Lawyer in the News for jumping on the political correctness bandwagon, championing the rights of a Mexican national with a sense-of-humour failure? My own experience of the profession is that too many members take themselves too seriously. ...
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Insurers back Law Society call to scrap ARP
The insurance industry has lent its support to the Law Society’s proposal for an alternative to the assigned risks pool (ARP), as a Solicitors Regulation Authority consultation on reforms to the professional indemnity insurance (PII) market closed this week.
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National Approved Letting Scheme quality mark deal
Landlord and tenant solicitors can become affiliated to the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), following an agreement with the Law Society announced this week. NALS represents landlords ...
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US courts warned over share actions
The US must not allow its courts to accept ‘f-cubed’ cases, where foreign investors can sue foreign companies after they lose money on shares bought on foreign stock exchanges, City lawyers have warned. In a joint response to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) consultation, ...
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Will the new act begin with a whimper?
Last week, the first corporate prosecution under the much-heralded Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 ended with a fine of £385,000 against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings. This followed its conviction for corporate manslaughter at Winchester Crown Court two days earlier. ...
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Allen & Overy advises on Tesco deal, oil acquisition, issuing capital notes and cross-border advice
Every little helps: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised a consortium of banks on arranging Tesco’s £685m commercial mortgage-backed bond issue, designed to release value from its UK property portfolio. City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner advised Tesco.
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Clients must be able to choose the lawyer they want
One of our main concerns at the Law Society is to ensure that we continue to work to preserve the principles of access to justice. This includes preserving our clients’ ability and freedom to choose the solicitor that they want. ...