All News articles – Page 1705
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News
Solicitors condemn BVT pilot over 'unrealistic' timescale
Solicitors in the best value tendering pilot areas have written a hard-hitting letter to the Legal Services Commission condemning the ‘unrealistic and perilous’ timescale for the pilot, which will spell ‘disaster’ for firms. Half of the 141 firms with criminal contracts in Avon and Somerset and ...
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Buzz off
Without doubt the silliest event we learned of this month was Nottinghamshire Law Society’s ‘buzzathon’; a 24-hour drive round and round a circuit in a teeny tiny van called an Ape (pronounced ‘Appey’, apparently). President Stephen Warner and vice-president Deborah Hutchinson took it in turns to drive the little vehicle, ...
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More job cuts at Burges Salmon
South-west firm Burges Salmon is to axe up to four property lawyers and up to 27 support staff in its second redundancy round of the year. The firm said that redundancy pay will be ‘more generous’ than the statutory minimum. In March, Burges Salmon let 18 ...
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Britannia under fire from Chancery Lane
The Law Society has criticised Britannia Building Society and The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) for failing to engage with it after the newly merged building society moved to axe 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel. After being advised last week of the decision to ...
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The chaps no longer born to rule
It sounds like Alice in Wonderland, with 750 unelected toffs substituting for the Queen of Hearts. Except it’s not a fairy story and it’s not funny. It’s the continuing saga of the House of Lords and the government’s snail-like progress towards reform.
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PII boost for small firms as XL enters market
Sole practitioners and small law firms have received a boost ahead of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals season, with news that insurance giant XL will provide them with cover. As revealed by the Gazette last week, XL, a new entrant to the solicitors’ PII market, ...
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Pro bono work rises due to recession
There has been a surge in pro bono work provided by lawyers as a result of the recession, figures have suggested. The increase stems from a combination of a greater need for pro bono work and the fact that some ...
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Is the legal profession to blame for the fall in social mobility?
When the Cabinet Office issued its call for evidence for an investigation into social mobility and the professions, it was very clear on one point: it did not want any backchat on the impact of an unequal society on social mobility.
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Fancy a bit of panel beating? Then look to basic business development
As the legal services market moves through a period of change, the phrase (or curse) 'may you live in interesting times' seems appropriate for solicitors. Panels of solicitors are being chopped and changed as organisations look towards the future of legal services in LDPs and ABSs.
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Sole practitioners axed from Britannia/Co-operative panel
Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), which has recently merged with Britannia Building Society, is to axe 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel, it has emerged. The Law Society has urged the CFS not to remove the large number of sole practitioners who had been on Britannia’s ...
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Human rights: clarifying the law on assisted suicide
R (on the application of Purdy) v the Director of Public Prosecutions [2009] UKHL 44. There are several remarkable features about the case of Debbie Purdy. For one, the case started with judicial review proceedings in April 2008, concluding with the House of Lords judgment ...
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Bar appeals to Lord Justice Jackson for referral fee ban
Lord Justice Jackson has been urged to recommend a ban or cap on referral fees as part of his review of civil justice costs. In its response to Jackson’s consultation, the Bar Council said referral fees ‘led to bad service and should be abolished’, noting that ...
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Employed lawyers: another European case
Another day, another case before the European Court of Justice on the practice of law. This one is interesting because it concerns rules that prohibit lawyers who are employed in other functions from being members of the bar.
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Legal aid lacuna
I am struck by the number of letters that you have published recently from various senior officials from the Legal Services Commission attempting to justify their destruction of the legal aid scheme.
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‘Rebalancing’ the legal aid budget
There is, it seems, no letup for criminal practitioners, with the MoJ’s announcement of further fee reductions last week.
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Advice for Life charity faced pressure from LSC before closure
Advice for Life, the collapsed parent charity of East Anglia’s two law centres, was struggling to repay funds to the Legal Services Commission before it went bust, it has emerged. Advice for Life’s closure caused Cambridge Law Centre and Huntingdon Law Centre to close for good at the end of ...
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Bar Standards Board warning over ABSs
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has said it would be ‘wrong’ to allow barristers to join alternative business structures (ABSs) without evidence of whether all forms of the new structure are ‘compatible with the regulatory objectives’ of the Legal Services Act 2007, or necessary for the benefit of consumers. ...
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ABS 'dominance' could push smaller firms out of market
The advent of alternative business structures (ABSs) could bring about a ‘point of no return’ whereby smaller firms are pushed out of the market by powerful new players, a legal thinktank has claimed. The College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute has warned that, by the ...
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Building society hit by £41m mortgage fraud
Solicitors and other professionals have been implicated in £41m of mortgage fraud which plunged the mutual Chelsea Building Society deep into the red in the first half, it emerged today. In its interim accounts Chelsea said that the mortgage fraud, perpetrated between 2006 and 2008, involved ...
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Data page for August 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data complied for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the data page for August 2009 below ...