All News articles – Page 1614
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News
Solicitors vie for judicial office
The number of applications from solicitors for the role of civil district judge almost doubled in the last selection round, according to data published by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) last week. Of the 81 candidates recommended for appointment, 72% were solicitors, who make up 40% ...
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Jockeying for position
What with the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France, cricket and the Open golf, watching sports could become a full-time occupation. But one lawyer in the equine team at northern firm Langleys has gone a step further than being just an armchair spectator. Private client assistant Serena Brotherton ...
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Insurers planning professional indemnity 'surcharge'
A number of insurers intend to include a ‘surcharge’ in their professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums this year, partly to highlight the soaring cost of the assigned risks pool, the Gazette has learned. It is understood that Travelers, among other insurers, is considering adding the charge ...
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Human rights
Pensions – Discrimination – Gender reassignment – Retirement age Christine Jennifer Timbrell v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Thorpe, Moore-Bick, Aikens): 22 June 2010 ...
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Taking the law into your own hands
For anyone who has ever started a sentence with ‘If I were running the country…’, the launch of Nick Clegg’s ‘Your freedom’ website last week must have been manna from heaven. The site gives Joe Public a forum for suggesting ideas for how Nick (pictured) and Dave should ‘redress the ...
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Self-help on referral fees
My name is Edward…and I am a referral fee-payer Having read correspondence in recent Gazettes about the question of referral fees, I have decided to form a new self-help group called Referrers Anonymous (RA). Anyone who pays referral fees to an introducer is welcome to attend, ...
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'Typical' PC fee set to fall
Practising fees will fall by more than a quarter in 2010/11 for the ‘typical’ fee-payer, if proposals submitted to the Law Society Council are approved next week. October will see the introduction of the so-called ‘fairer fees’ regime, under which 40% of the cost of ...
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Freshfields reports fall in turnover
Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer today reported an 11% fall in turnover as it became the final magic circle firm to unveil its annual financial results. Revenues at the firm fell to £1.14bn in 2009/10 from £1.29bn in 2008/09, while average profits per equity partner ...
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Europe's most prominent guardians of human rights
Step into the entrance foyer of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg and you could be in a sports centre in Milton Keynes on a quiet morning. The glass, tubular steel and spiral staircases lack gravitas. There are no gowned briefs or clients in evidence. The place ...
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Employment
Administrative law – Health – Compensation – Compensation agreements Rose Gibb v Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Laws, Sedley, Rimer): 23 June 2010 The ...
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It’s not the economy, stupid
The Gazette reported recently there was ‘no evidence that referral fees harm consumers’ according to an ‘economic analysis’.
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Cutting-edge technology is transforming the way solicitors work
There are too many heavyweight topics upon which one might opine today: reviews of family and criminal justice, to name but two. We crave your indulgence therefore to comment instead upon something less momentous but, in its own way, no less diverting. That is the ...
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Criminal law
Businesses – Commercial offences – False descriptions – Labelling R v Elizabeth Lee: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Aikens, Mr Justice Royce, Judge Radford (Recorder of Redbridge)): 24 June 2010 ...
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SRA considers scrapping minimum trainee salaries
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to examine whether it should stop setting a minimum salary level for trainees as part of its overhaul of regulation, in a review that will begin this autumn. The regulator is also considering whether to freeze the current minimum salary level ...
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Law firm 'conservatism’ slowing LPO market growth
Market hype and law firm conservatism have hindered the growth of the legal process outsourcing (LPO) market, according to a report by data analyst Ovum seen exclusively by the Gazette. While the LPO industry is ‘set for significant growth over the next few years’, it is ...
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Does the UK need a comprehensive constitutional framework?
This week’s announcement of a referendum on whether MPs should be elected under the alternative vote system is the latest example of Britain’s piecemeal approach to constitutional reform. Surely we should step back and take a broader view of how we govern the UK?
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A third of 'trusted' immigration practices face closure
Nearly a third of ‘trusted’ immigration firms could face closure following the outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s bid round last week, solicitors’ groups have warned. Lawyers also foresaw more bad news ahead for civil legal aid practices as firms await the ‘crunch date’ of the ...
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Call for 'international convention’ on parent relocation
A senior Court of Appeal judge has called for an international convention to establish a common approach in contested cases on the relocation of children, where one parent wishes to move abroad. Head of international family justice Lord Justice Thorpe said that English caselaw had consistently ...
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Outcomes-focused regulation: what your firm needs to build
The SRA has now completed the first stage of its programme of roadshows leading to the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation and alternative business structures in October 2011. The launch in London on 25 May was followed by well-attended events in Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Exeter, Cambridge, Newcastle, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
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Pad on the back
Anyone played with an iPad yet? Obiter had one thrust into his palms by a beaming chum only last week, but embarrassingly mistook it for an oversized iPhone (‘Where’s the earpiece’ rather gave the game away).