All News articles – Page 1611
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News
Contract law: this summer’s essential beach reading from the EC
A sure sign of the beginning of the summer, as fixed as hot weather and crowded airports, is the publication by the European Commission of an important consultation document. They clear their desks before packing their bags, and woe to the rest of us who want to enjoy the summer. ...
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Firms that fail to pay ARP premium will face closure
Firms in the assigned risks pool that have not paid their premiums by October will be closed down, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today as it unveiled a tough new enforcement programme to clamp down on ‘financially unstable’ firms in the pool. The SRA said that ...
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Legal aid budget to be slashed by half a billion
Justice secretary Ken Clarke is expected to submit plans to the Treasury today that will slash the £2.1bn legal aid budget by a quarter. The huge cut of half a billion pounds is a response to chancellor George Osborne’s demands for sweeping cuts to be made ...
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Morale has never been lower in legal aid
Over the last couple of years covering legal aid for the Gazette, I have got used to writing stories of the doom and gloom facing lawyers and their clients, as fees are cut and bureaucracy increased.
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Simon Young
Council members and staff at the Law Society were greatly saddened to learn of the untimely death on 3 July of former council member Simon Young. Simon was elected to the council in 2001 to represent the Society’s Law Management Section, which he did for ...
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Sentencing
Penology and criminology – commencement provisions – concurrent sentences – custody plus orders R (on the application of Noone) (FC) v Governor of Drake Hall Prison and Anor: SC (Lords Phillips, Saville, Brown, Mance, Judge): 30 June 2010 ...
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Scare tactics
Cheshire firm Chafes has hosted temporary recruits at its Wilmslow office over the past week. Two scarecrows, named Mike and Dave by staff, have been somewhat precariously ensconced on a ledge outside the firm’s first-floor office. Their arrival is not, as one might imagine, linked to problems of the avian ...
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MoJ unveils policy roadmap
The Ministry of Justice has published a structural reform plan (SRP), setting out key milestones and timescales for delivering policy. Justice secretary Ken Clarke listed his top five priorities as: sentencing reform; a ‘rehabilitation revolution’; reforming the courts and legal aid system; reform of the prison ...
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Sexism is no joke
Howard Shelley (see letter) says sharia law has a role to play in dispute resolution. Nothing in law currently prevents anyone submitting to religious dispute resolution if they so choose. As he says, as long as it does not replace English law it can be used. The Jews have the ...
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Human rights
Administration of justice – armed forces – inquests – jurisdiction R (on the application of Smith) (respondent) v Secretary of State for Defence (appellant): SC (Lords Phillips (president), Hope (deputy president), Rodger, Walker, Brown, Mance, Collins, Kerr, Lady Hale): ...
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Is mental health tendering scheme a success story?
Hugh Barrett (see letter) states that the tendering scheme in mental health was a success. The highly vulnerable clients we represent will often not see it that way.
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Splitting hair
Divorce is never a laughing matter. So Obiter extends heartfelt sympathies to the poor couple pictured (in the foreground), who are in the process of parting company. What’s that you say? This bearded chap and elegantly coiffed blonde lady are not actually a separating couple, but are in fact two ...
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Could the ‘Freemium’ model work in legal services?
Twenty-first-century businesses are making vast sums of money by charging their customers nothing. This is the paradox at the heart of Chris Anderson’s new book Free, the Future of a Radical Price, which argues that new technologies are causing production and distribution costs to plummet.
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Scrapping regulation reform for private landlords shows no foresight
by Debra Wilsonpartner at Anthony Gold and a member of the Law Society housing law committee In his first speech as housing minister, Grant Shapps announced that the government was scrapping recommendations to further regulate the private rented sector. He said further regulation would ‘create burdensome ...
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PII – why a large number of firms will be seeking a new insurer
When the profession ditched the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF), a compelling reason for the move was that many good firms were paying for the failures of the few. Now, a decade later, solicitors are back in exactly the same position. Only, the ‘few’ could become substantially more over the next ...
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KBP taken over by financial services mutual Wesleyan
The company that rose from the ashes of legal lender Key Business Finance (KBF), which collapsed amid the 2008 banking crisis, has been taken over by financial services mutual Wesleyan. KBF supplied nearly 15% of law firms in England and Wales with short-term loans before it ...
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Family lawyers left ‘in limbo’ by LSC
Legal aid lawyers have been ‘left in limbo’ by the Legal Services Commission’s continuing failure to announce the outcome of the family and social welfare tenders, practitioners said this week. Firms were originally due to find out the results of the bidding exercise last month, but ...
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Voice of experience
That great survivor Ken Clarke, who turned 70 this month, was on characteristically ebullient form at the Law Society’s summer party at the Tate Modern. And yes, it’s official – like all jazz afficionados, the new justice secretary and erstwhile chancellor really does wear brown suede shoes. Like many people ...
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Oil refinery, sugar, supermarkets and TV entertainment
Comedy collection: City firm Olswang advised Elisabeth Murdoch’s TV production company Shine on acquiring comedy TV producer Brown Eyed Boy, which claims to have discovered comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (pictured), from media investment company Motive Television, advised by southcoast firm Moore Blatch, and ...
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Profits up, income down at Shoosmiths and MMS
National firm Shoosmiths today reported a 70% jump in average profits per equity partner (PEP), despite a 9% fall in revenues. PEP rose to £256,000 in 2009/10, up from £150,000 in the previous 12 months, but still well down on the £372,000 recorded in 2007/08. ...