All News articles – Page 1707
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News
Employment
Compensation – Final salary schemes – Unfair dismissal Aegon UK Corporate Services Ltd v S Roberts: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Keene, Dyson, Elias): 21 July 2009 The appellant employer ...
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Putting your foot down
It may not sound quite as adventurous as Mongolia, but Obiter has also heard from another solicitor making a gruelling journey for charity. Gerard Rogers, senior solicitor at Chesterfield Borough Council, has just cycled 950 miles from John O’Groats to Lands End, in 10 days. Rogers tells us that the ...
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Diversity distraction
I have just received a questionnaire to complete in connection with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s equality and diversity study. I am absolutely stunned at its content.
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Red-faced letter day
Obiter reported a few months back on the dangers of fingers slipping on keyboards, with our chief typo correspondent David Wershof of Wiseman Lee informing us of an unfortunate client who confused ‘possible’ with pissible’ on his BlackBerry, with tragic consequences. Now the ...
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Pre-contract discussions: useful, but won’t work in court
Funny things, contracts. They start their lives in a honeymoon of smiles and happy expectation, as the parties individually believe their interests have been buttoned down firmly and fortified with ‘hoops of steel’. But time passes, events happen, and the document is eventually pulled out of a dusty cupboard to ...
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CPS criticised by Justice Committee over victims’ rights
Government proclamations that the Crown Prosecution Service is a champion of victims’ rights are ‘a damaging misrepresentation of reality’, a report said this week. The report by the House of Commons Justice Committee praised the CPS for its collaborative working with police, but raised concerns over ...
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Mr Justice Gross to head Commercial Court
Mr Justice Gross has been appointed judge in charge of the Commercial Court with effect from 1 October. He will succeed Mr Justice Andrew Smith, whose term of office comes to an end on 30 September. Gross will have overall responsibility for ...
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Clarity on claims
A recent editorial refers to the claims management regulator placing blame for malpractice firmly on solicitors (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July, 10).
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Miners win negligence payouts from solicitors over coal health claims
Injured miners who successfully sued their former solicitors for under-settling coal health compensation claims have won tens of thousands of pounds in settlements, it has emerged. Documents obtained by the Gazette from a law firm that has handled miners’ negligence cases show that a small ...
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Conveyancing must move toward technological change... Or else
by Timothy Hill, technology policy adviser for the Law SocietyThe recent warning from the British Retail Consortium that high streets could reach a ‘tipping point’, beyond which they will no longer be viable, highlights an important question.
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Celebrity fever
As Obiter reported last week, lawyers spend more on frocks and smocks than almost any other professionals. So all those readers with wardrobes stuffed full of gladrags should get themselves along to the glitzy charity ball being organised by trainee solicitor Kimberley Shields at Laytons in Guildford this month, in ...
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Major third-party funding case fails in House of Lords
A major negligence case that first brought third-party funding into the public eye was struck out by the House of Lords last week at a cost of around £2.5m to the litigation funder. IM Litigation Funding admitted that the cost of losing the case, which it ...
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Co-op launches legal services promotion campaign
The Co-operative has launched a high-profile campaign to promote its legal services to the 17 million weekly shoppers in its food stores. The campaign, which includes in-store radio, till screen displays and door-to-door leafleting, will last nine weeks and aims to promote awareness of the range ...
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What brokers and insurers forecast for the PII renewal deadline
This is the time of year when professional indemnity insurers and brokers start warning solicitors that the market is going to harden and they had better smarten up their act. Get your proposals in nice and early if you want the best deals, has been the message; a message that ...
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Legal Services Board seeks powers to impose huge fines on regulators
The Legal Services Board could punish the Law Society and other regulators with multi-million-pound fines if they fail to meet its regulatory objectives, under proposals published this week. The plans, which would give the LSB powers to fine the Law Society up to £28m for non-compliance, ...
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PII bills to stay flat for big firms, but rise sharply for small
Professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums for the top 100 law firms look likely to remain flat for 2009/10 despite a slight increase in claims, insurance broker Marsh said today. Insurance bills for small firms, however, are likely to rise significantly. Marsh, which claims it brokes PII ...
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Crown Prosecution Service does not benefit from an ‘overall vision’
The Crown Prosecution Service must be a depressing place to be at the moment. Criticisms of the way it functions have been coming fast and furious over the past few weeks.
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A question of authority
I have just read your article on claims management companies (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July 3). I note that Kevin Rousell appears to believe that the majority of CMCs are trying to ‘comply’ with the referral code.
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Civil legal aid contracts delayed by Legal Services Commission
The Legal Services Commission has delayed tendering for civil legal aid contracts by six months, in a move described as a ‘mixed blessing’ by lawyers. The delay means that family solicitors will have to wait longer for the new rules, which will ensure they are paid ...
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Provision gap in the east after East Anglia law centres close
East Anglia is currently without a single legal aid law centre after Cambridge Law Centre and Huntingdon Law Centre, the only two centres in East Anglia, closed down after their parent charity ceased trading. Advice for Life, the charity that ran both law centres, stopped trading ...