All News articles – Page 1608
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News
Lord chief justice defends trial by jury
The lord chief justice emphasised the importance of trial by jury last week as the Court of Appeal overturned two High Court decisions that trials could proceed without a jury. Sir Igor Judge said that judge-alone trials should only proceed ‘as a last resort’. ...
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Personal injury lawyers issue warning over CFA reform
Personal injury lawyers warned that the government was taking ‘a step backwards’ this week as it announced that it will consult on Lord Justice Jackson’s plans for reform of the way lawyers are paid in civil cases. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said the government will focus ...
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Booth inconvenienced
Some women still reckon the profession treats them pretty shoddily at times, but according to Cherie Booth QC, things used to be a heck of a lot worse. Giving the Association of Women Solicitors’ Fiona Woolf lecture at the Law Society last week, Booth recalled ...
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Family law supplier base ‘decimated’ by LSC tender
The family law supplier base has been ‘decimated’ by the ‘shock’ outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for civil legal aid work, lawyers groups alleged this week. The Law Society and Legal Aid Practitioners Group said member feedback indicated that around half of firms that ...
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Brothers in arms
Obiter heard tell this week of an intriguing tale of sibling rivalry – two brothers pitted against each other in a public battle. But this time it was not David and Ed. No indeed: Kamar Uddin, principal at Birmingham firm Res Ipsa, was ...
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The tender miseries of a legal aid lawyer
Back in March, when Jack Straw announced plans to turn the Legal Services Commission into an executive agency, the Ministry of Justice assured us that the department had already assumed tighter control of the quango. At the time, the Law Society called for greater clarity in respect of the ‘parameters ...
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Employment and age-old problem
I was very upset to read the letter, titled 'Too old for the legal profession', in which a 59-year-old solicitor said he had been told that he is on the ‘scrapheap’ and unemployable. What on earth are firms thinking? What a fantastic opportunity to employ someone who is likely to ...
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Law firms entitled to set compulsory retirement age
A former law firm partner who accused his firm of acting unlawfully by making him retire at 65 has lost his age discrimination case in the Court of Appeal. Leslie Seldon, now 69, a former civil litigation partner at Kent law firm Clarkson Wright Jakes (CWJ), ...
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End of the line for police station advice?
Cuts in the provision of legal aid are perhaps an inevitable if uncomfortable consequence of the economic mess that we find ourselves in. However, we now learn that justice secretary Ken Clarke’s new-found enthusiasm for keeping offenders out of the prison system is matched by contemplation of a plan to ...
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Halliwells administrator’s cash management warning
Professional firms must pay ‘far greater attention to cash management’ following the break-up of north-west firm Halliwells, the firm’s administrator warned last week. A deal to sell Halliwells’ Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield operations to three former rivals was completed last week, and Halliwells has now been ...
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Solicitorsfromhell owner in second High Court libel action
The owner of website solicitorsfromhell.co.uk is facing a second High Court libel action, the Gazette has learned. The news comes as it emerged that website owner Rick Kordowski has been invited by the BBC to assist with an investigation into alleged sharp practices by solicitors as ...
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City lawyer leads push for Indian market liberalisation
Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham, the sole UK law firm representative in the prime minister’s trade delegation to India, is expected to meet determined opposition from the country’s legal establishment to any attempt at opening up the market to foreign law firms.
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Marcoms – get the basics right
Recent posts from Clare Rodway and Richard Cohen explore new ideas in the changing market for legal services. Both provide useful indicators of future marketing and business process methods that firms need to consider as part of their planning.
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Chancery Lane appoints chief assessors to lead best practice panels
The Law Society has begun the process of updating and reviewing its professional accreditation schemes with the appointment of three chief assessors. The new chief assessors are Law Society council member for child care law Christina Blacklaws, who will lead the children law panel; Stuart Barlow, ...
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Will tender contracts survive government’s legal aid strategy review?
Over the last four months I have been kept busy writing about the outcomes of the Legal Services Commission’s tender exercises. First there was crime, followed by mental health, immigration, family and social welfare.
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Lawyers 'optimistic' over legal services reform
Alternative business structures will bring more work for high street and other firms as the big brands educate the public that they need to make a will, solicitors have suggested in a recent report. However, practitioners also indicated that the cost of regulation is driving some ...
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Insurers set to move into small firm market
Broker Marsh is in discussions with two major insurers to open their doors to two- and three-partner firms, it has said. At a press briefing last week, Janine Parker, head of solicitors’ professional indemnity, said that Marsh is ‘trying to put together a solution for two- ...
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Lessons from a conference on a turbulent legal profession
I have just participated in a conference at Stanford University in California, called The Legal Profession in Times of Turbulence. It was attended by professors from leading American universities, with presentations of the highest quality. I have conclusions to draw of interest to us in Europe.
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Lloyds Banking Group to review conveyancing panel
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to review the criteria for membership of its conveyancing panels and reduce the number of firms it instructs using a ‘risk based’ model that it says will allow it to assess firms individually. The group, which includes Lloyds TSB; Halifax; Bank ...