All News articles – Page 1724
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Counselling the counsel
At the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, one theme resonated the loudest – and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with slashing panel law firms and cutting external legal spend. Still, external counsel shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
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Local government: surveillance powers, tenancy and effective consultation
There is always a public authority tension between what might be called 'customer-centred governance' and regulation. So while most local authorities will try to be 'customer responsive' to their council tax payers and other stakeholders, their regulatory functions mean that not everyone will always feel treated as a 'customer'. For, ...
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Clarity on TUPE
In your article titled ‘Law Society calls for halt to BVT rollout’, [Law Society chief executive] Des Hudson expressed concerns about BVT (see [2009] Gazette, 21 May, 3).
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LCS puts coal-compensation claims on hold
The Legal Complaints Service has gone against the advice of its watchdog by refusing to re-open around 160 complaints against Yorkshire law firm Raleys concerning compensation payments to miners. The LCS, which suspended investigations in March, said it will not reopen the cases until the ...
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Chancery Lane defers decision on compensation fund levy
The Law Society’s Council yesterday deferred a final decision on the level of this year’s compensation fund levy until its next monthly meeting in July.Society president Paul Marsh said this was to accommodate further discussion with the SRA on the matter. Papers for yesterday’s meeting include ...
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Chancery Lane hits out at means testing proposals
Government proposals for Crown court means testing could deny vulnerable people access to justice and are being ‘rushed in’ too quickly, the Law Society said today. Chancery Lane said the Ministry of Justice has failed to consider the economic climate, which has seen many people ...
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Top dogs herding cats
Obiter has always lived by the maxim ‘be nice to your human resources people, for when the chopping starts, it is they who will be wielding the axe.’ But perhaps such thinking is for losers and wimps. Certainly ...
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Lord chief justice calls for profession to work together
The lord chief justice has called on lawyers to take the initiative in shaping their future and not wait for events to shape it for them. Lord Judge said he would be ‘delighted’ if barristers, solicitors and legal executives ‘would together and separately address the ...
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On the brink
The Legal Services Commission says that my figures in respect of the number of firms that may fold following implementation of best value tendering (BVT) are ‘inaccurate’ (see [2009] Gazette, 4 June, 2).
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Cut-price HIPS boost interest
Solicitors could oust estate agents as the first port of call for home sellers if a trend started in Merseyside catches on nationally, a conveyancer claims. Liverpool firm MSB says that after launching a cost-price home information pack (HIP) it has had a 500% surge ...
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Bad form, whichever way you look at it
Even if your firm does not undertake legal aid work, please don’t switch off. Although I want to query just what the Legal Services Commission’s intentions are with regard to electronic working, there are implications in what I have to say for the Courts Service, the Tribunals Service and other ...
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Despite the recession Birmingham continues to attract new talent
One-time workshop of the world, today a metropolis renowned for its diversity and commercial nous, Birmingham has grown accustomed to reinventing itself. Since the early 1990s, England’s second city has been in a long regeneration phase. And although the recession has hit it hard, major development projects are keeping Brummies’ ...
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Solicitors encouraged to apply for judicial posts
Solicitors have never been in a better position to apply for judicial office, the Law Society has said in response to research suggesting that many still perceive the judiciary as ‘a career for others’. A study sponsored by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) says that solicitors ...
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Providing answers
In last week’s Gazette, the LSC’s spokesman said the commission is working with representative groups and planning how best to support providers.
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We cannot ignore the arrival of alternative business structures
You may have noticed that lawyers opposed to the prospect of supermarkets, banks and other non-legal firms running legal practices recently protested outside the Royal Courts of Justice (pictured, left). They handed out cans of baked beans labelled ‘Legal services by supermarkets is as ridiculous as lawyers selling beans’. ...
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Defence fee caps will be final blow for legal aid, practitioners say
Government proposals to cap payments made to acquitted defendants who have paid privately for their defence are the ‘final nail in the coffin’ of criminal legal aid firms, a leading practitioner group has warned. The Ministry of Justice announced this week it is to press ...
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All-party group boosts legal aid
Michael Mansfield QC (pictured standing) criticised the government’s ‘short-sighted and completely erroneous’ approach to the provision of legal aid services at last week’s launch of an all-party parliamentary group on legal aid. The group, chaired by Labour MP Karen Buck, aims to promote parliamentary and public understanding of the role ...
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MoJ publishes report on local legal advice
A government-commissioned report on local legal advice provision has recommended that the Legal Services Commission work with service providers to reduce the bureaucratic burdens heaped upon them.
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New fixed-fee deal could cut payments for low cost accident claims
Solicitors handling the hundreds of thousands of straightforward road traffic accident (RTA) claims brought every year look set for a significant cut in the fees they receive, the Gazette can reveal. Talks to agree a new fixed-fee claims process for RTA claims worth less than £10,000 ...
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Wragge & Co to axe 85 after income falls
Birmingham firm Wragge & Co has announced that it will cut up to 85 staff, after its revenues fell by nearly a fifth last year. The firm’s turnover for the 12 months to 30 April was £104.3m, down by 17.5% on last year’s ...