All News articles – Page 1666
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LSC announces dates for civil legal aid tenders, but concerns remain
The Legal Services Commission has announced the revised dates that tendering for the new civil contracts for legal aid work will open, but the Law Society has warned that problems must still be addressed before the tenders begin. Bid rounds for social welfare law and ...
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Government backs fairer access proposals
The government signed up to wide-ranging proposals to help young people from less privileged backgrounds enter the legal and other professions this week, but rejected plans to give tax incentives or other ‘targeted support’ to law firms to help them achieve this.
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Scottish court ruling raises questions about overturning legislation
Will the courts ever quash an act of parliament? The orthodox answer is, of course, ‘no’ – although there were hints to the contrary in the Jackson case of 2005 when the law lords dismissed a challenge to recent fox-hunting legislation. Earlier this month, though, ...
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More debate is needed about Lord Justice Jackson's proposed reforms
by Patrick Allensenior partner at Hodge Jones & Allen and a claimant PI solicitor. He was president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers in 2003 and is a member of the Law Society Civil Justice Committee As expected, the main recommendations of the Jackson report ...
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Straw to crack down on lawyers’ defamation fees
The Ministry of Justice has launched a four-week consultation proposing an ‘urgent’ interim measure to limit the success fees that can be claimed by lawyers in defamation cases. The consultation paper proposes limiting the uplift charged by lawyers for winning defamation cases taken on under conditional ...
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Tax lawyers report rise in tribunal appeals work
Tax litigation lawyers have seen a 14% increase in tribunal cases as a result of more aggressive tax collection by HM Revenue & Customs. A report by accountants UHY Hacker Young found that tax tribunals cases grew from 4,311 in 2007 to 4,897 in 2008, with ...
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In two minds about schizophrenia?
Our society has an ambivalent attitude to schizophrenia, as a cursory search of the news for the first half of January 2010 makes abundantly clear.
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MPs warn of criminal justice 'crisis'
A committee of MPs has warned that the criminal justice system is ‘facing a crisis of sustainability’ as government spending on prisons takes resources away from other aspects of criminal justice. The Justice Committee said the government should make ‘radical moves’ to shift resources away from ...
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Echoing Lord Justice Jackson on alternative dispute resolution
Here is one of the big issues facing the EU: how do you successfully communicate laws and policies to more than 500 million citizens in 23 official languages?
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YouGov survey sheds light on professional services
With an hour to kill at the dentist on Monday, with my son in the hot seat, I took along a little light reading – the recent YouGov survey results published on behalf of the Legal Services Board.
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Secret profit
I would once have been astonished to read that we are now allowed to add a mark-up to counsel’s fees (see [2009] Gazette, 17 December, 2). Sadly, it is a sign of the times. This appears to be yet another example of professional standards being undermined by commercial expediency.
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Time is money
Christopher Digby-Bell (Letters, 7 January) clearly does not live in the real world when he claims that ‘it is only lawyers who are paid more if the work takes longer than expected’. Anyone with experience of builders knows that more often than not, problems arise as the work progresses, which ...
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This year’s model
Adam Makepeace of Duncan Lewis & Co makes some pertinent points with regard to the large-scale provision of civil legal aid work (see [2009] Gazette, 10 December, 12). However, his conclusion that the choice of a model other than that used by his firm for the provision of civil legal ...
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Order of merit
Obiter is pleased to announce the five lucky winners of last week’s competition for a free copy of the first series of Law & Order: UK, by completing the sentence, ‘I think I should star in my own TV legal drama because…’. The ...
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Why are women trainees paid less than men?
For some time, the profession has been doing a good job of enticing women in (although, as we all know, a lot of them end up packing their bags in their 30s when they find family life incompatible with their firm’s demands).
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Memory lane
The notion that writers cherish the idea that anyone pays much attention to what they write is a little far fetched. Law firm's learn their profits are below the national average. The joy of after dinner speeches. The ...
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Jackson report published today
Claimant personal injury lawyers and after-the-event (ATE) insurers were nervously awaiting the publication of the Jackson report as the Gazette went to press. After a year of research and consultation, Lord Justice Jackson (pictured) will today reveal his blueprint to reform civil litigation costs with the ...
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Show girls
Obiter always likes to hear from satisfied customers, so we were delighted to receive this picture from Katie Jones, winner of our competition to win two tickets to Legally Blonde, the musical. Not only did Katie say she had a jolly old time ...
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Foot loose
Readers with filing cabinets are advised to check behind them, pronto. It’s amazing what you can find. A Bic biro circa 1978; a ball of decaying rubber bands; a Bay City Rollers LP bought in a moment of madness and then shamefacedly hidden from colleagues. Or perhaps a series of ...