All News articles – Page 1598
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News
New duty for barristers to report misconduct
Barristers will face a duty to report misconduct by their colleagues under new rules proposed by the bar’s regulator. The Bar Standards Board last week published its fourth and final paper in a series of consultations designed to modernise and clarify the bar’s code of conduct. ...
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'Bomb threats’ lead London firm to stop fileshare work
A London law firm has withdrawn from high-profile cases against alleged illegal file-sharers because of ‘criminal attacks’ and ‘bomb threats’. ACS:Law had been pursuing 26 cases on behalf of its client MediaCAT, which alleges that its copyright has been infringed by illegal file-sharers. But in a ...
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Students launch pro bono projects
The City Law School has joined forces with civil liberties group Liberty to launch a pro bono human rights advice clinic. The clinic, due to go live imminently, will give student solicitors and barristers a platform from which to advise members of the public on a ...
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Campbell privacy ruling exposes 'deeply flawed' CFA system
Bumper success fees for lawyers in libel cases will soon be a thing of the past following last week’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Naomi Campbell case, solicitors predicted this week. Kevin Bays, partner at London firm Davenport Lyons, who ...
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Damaging free speech
Steven Heffer’s article is off the mark in a number of ways. In light of the recent judgment by the ECHR in MGN v UK on excessive success fees, along with the damning report by the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee and the Jackson review, it ...
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There should be no rigid threshold determining a prisoner’s right to vote
Spare a thought for Mark Harper, junior minister at the Cabinet Office who is responsible for political and constitutional reform. A chartered accountant by training, he finds himself responsible for reducing the number of his fellow MPs; for introducing fixed-term parliaments; and for answering the unanswerable West Lothian question. But ...
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Legal executive numbers grow
The ranks of legal executives are set to swell, as the number of people sitting Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) examinations climbed 40% in 2010 compared with the previous year. The examinations were taken for the Level 3 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice, which is ...
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Financially unsound
I read December’s article by the Solicitors Regulation Authority chair Charles Plant . I would like to respond to him through the same channel.
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UK rules leaves foreign spouse visa holders vulnerable
In R v Inhabitants of Eastbourne (1803) 4 East 103, Lord Ellenborough declared, absent of statutory support for poor foreigners, the ‘law of humanity, which is anterior to all positive laws, obliges us to afford them relief, to save them from starving’. For one group, however, the law falls short ...
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Solicitor wants forum for ‘isolated’ NHS lawyers
A solicitor working in the National Health Service wants to create a forum for NHS lawyers, to reduce the sense of ‘isolation’ they may feel. Justin Day, commercial legal adviser at Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust, wants the group to provide a setting ...
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Freedom of information: who 'holds' project licences?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) applies to information which is held by a public authority at the time it receives an access request. The First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) recently examined the sometimes difficult question of when information is ‘held’ in ...
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Rough guide
Obiter knows times are tough out there for property lawyers, but did not realise just how bad things have got until this harrowing picture of Robert Camp, commercial property solicitor and joint managing partner at Exeter firm Stephens Scown, arrived at Obiter Towers ...
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Immigration
Compassionate grounds – HIV – Leave to remain – Medical treatment SG (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Rimer, Sullivan): 12 January 2011 ...
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Immigration
Human rights – Asylum – Children’s welfare – Failed asylum seekers R (on the application of (1) Reetha Suppiah (2) Danahar Govindasamy (a child by his litigation friend Reetha Suppiah) (3) Emmanuel Govindasamy (a child by his litigation friend ...
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VAT victory on personal injury medical reports
Personal injury clients will not have to pay VAT on the cost of medical reports following a successful appeal by a Nottingham law firm, supported by the Law Society, in a tax tribunal last week. Nottingham personal injury and clinical negligence firm Barratt Goff & Tomlinson ...
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Je ne regrette rien
Any lawyers who consider themselves to be hardworking, dedicated types may be concerned to learn that they are in the minority within the profession. That is, if you believe the results of a survey of 500 legal professionals conducted by online jobs board twosteps.com. According to the survey, a quarter ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, January 1971 Letter to the editor: At least legal jargon is clearer than computer language ...
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Marching together
Why does Roger Smith assume that ‘most readers will never have been on a demonstration’. I, and most of my colleagues who work in publicly funded legal work, have been on countless demonstrations, relating to many different civil liberties issues over the years, and many ...
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Does the profession have strength in numbers?
The UK’s laughable inability to cope with more than a light dusting of frozen water is a national embarrassment. But snow has its uses. The week’s shock 0.5% GDP fall is all down to the weather, we are told, and the same applies to gruesome retail sales figures.
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The trials of youth
Obiter was heartened to see the talent on display at a south-east regional heat of the Bar National Mock Trial Competition last week. The trials were conducted in a competitive but civilised fashion by teams of 17-year-olds from local schools.