All News articles – Page 1654
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News
What are the government’s real plans for the financial regulators?
After the big bang, the silence. George Osborne may have wowed the City with his promise to smash the Financial Services Authority (FSA) at Mansion House a couple of weeks ago, but what on earth have we leant since then about our new financial regulators?
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Scrapping HIPs has little impact on property market
The scrapping of home information packs (HIPs) has had only a ‘marginal’ impact on the beleaguered property market, solicitors said this week, as they predicted that the market will remain slow for the rest of the year. Communities secretary Eric Pickles, who axed the controversial sellers’ ...
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Courts Service failed to collect £1.3bn of fines
The Courts Service has failed to collect more than £1.3bn of fines and other penalties, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) published this week. The report on the financial management of the Ministry of Justice, which oversees HMCS, shows the amount of ...
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Civil Procedure Rules 2009 - update
The second set of amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) for 2009 were contained within the Civil Procedure (Amendment No2) Rules 2009 (SI 2009/3390) and the much longer update 51 which effected changes to the CPR Practice Directions. Unless otherwise stated, the changes were effective from 6 April 2010. ...
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Truth about CFAs
I was interested to see from your piece last week, ‘Urgent action’ demanded on CFA ‘scandal’ (see news), that Steven Heffer had written to the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke QC on behalf of Lawyers for Media Standards to voice its concerns about the proposal to reduce the maximum success fee ...
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Matters of fact about recent mental health tender
Recent negative comments in the Gazette about the results of the Legal Services Commission’s mental health tender ignore a number of key points. The tender process itself was a success. The LSC actually allocated 1,500 more new matter starts than in 2009/10, and the allocations we ...
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What about the poor students?
I understand that banks are either reducing or stopping altogether the loans they have offered to students for the graduate conversion and Legal Practice Courses. There is no student loan funding available for this either. We would not discriminate against people from different racial backgrounds ...
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Criminal law - procedural amendments
On 5 April 2010, the Criminal Procedure Rules were consolidated into a new edition, but the opportunity was also taken to make a series of amendments. Part 29 now provides for special measures to assist defendants in relation to witness anonymity orders.
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Law centre to take on child asylum appeals
A law centre is to improve access to justice for asylum-seeking children by taking on and funding appeals referred to it by legal aid firms, it emerged last week. Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre (HFLC) has invited publicly funded firms to submit cases to it that ...
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Surprise appointments
Many lawyers shared the surprise of Conservative MPs Dominic Grieve and Henry Bellingham when David Cameron gave neither a position in the Ministry of Justice in May. The legal profession had spent the last 12 months schmoozing the pair, who were widely expected to become justice secretary and legal aid ...
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Legal ombudsman will take non-legal approach to complaints handling
by Adam Sampsonchief legal ombudsman for the new complaints-handling scheme In all the speculation about the consequences of a new government and its approach to managing the nation’s budget deficit, we all anticipated a period of review and reflection. Some of the certainties of the previous ...
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ARP: history repeats itself
Why does history always have to repeat itself? The comment of my professional colleague Dugald Sproull is very similar to the views I held about the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) and the position from which I challenged the SIF monopoly in the late 1990s.
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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).
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...