All News articles – Page 1734
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News
Memory lane
Possible improvements to the Poor Persons Procedure and a critique on the implementation of technology in office procedures. The Law Society’s Gazette May 1939 ...
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Staging an Inquest
Death-in-custody group Inquest is hosting Q&A sessions after two performances of the Chickenshed Theatre Company’s As the Mother of a Brown Boy this month. The production, ‘a moving and powerful piece, using dance, physical theatre, live music and multimedia to present an extraordinary story of injustice, identity and love’, was ...
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Lord Hunt outlines vision for regulation
The peer tasked by Chancery Lane with reviewing legal regulation says that only ‘minor’ adjustments to the Law Society’s internal governance may be required to yield ‘enormous benefit’ for the regulation of law firms. Lord Hunt of Wirral wants to see a system of regulation emerge ...
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Which political party gets your vote on human rights?
All three major political parties have recently showcased their human rights and civil liberties credentials at the British Institute of Human Rights in London. First up was the Tory Nick Herbert MP, who explained the party’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) and replace it with a Bill ...
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In the Hunt for fresh ideas
Lord Hunt’s preliminary report on legal regulation is almost worth reading for its flamboyant and elegant prose alone. How often in documents of this type does one come across coinages such as ‘omphaloskepsis’ (‘navel-gazing’). We suspect a classical education. More seriously, the Gazette urges every solicitor ...
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Ethics must be entrenched in a solicitor’s training
When I opened the Law Society’s Leadership Summit in February, I called for a debate on the future of the profession to spring up across the country. I repeated that call a few days later in the Gazette.
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News
New provider to enter PII market
The single renewal date of 1 October is not the only cause of last year’s problems with professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals, the chairman of the Law Society’s PII working group stressed this week. Nigel Day, a partner at Manchester firm Hague Lambert, said: ‘It’s ...
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Employment
Employment status – Limited liability partnerships - Members M Kovats v (1) TFO Management LLP (2) The Family Group of Companies: EAT (Mr Justice Birtles, T Motture, D Welch): 21 April 2009 ...
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Marketing matters: why standing out from the crowd is important
With the recession apparently settling in for the long haul and law firms feeling the pinch, it is unsurprising that many are looking hard at what cuts can be made to outgoings to maximise dwindling profit margins and ensure as many jobs as possible are saved. One might be tempted ...
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International environmental court plan
A new International Court for the Environment, with powers to compensate victims of environmental damage and punish the perpetrators, has been proposed by a coalition of lawyers, politicians, environmentalists and non-governmental organisations. Stephen Hockman QC, who convened a meeting last week to get the project under ...
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Old World countries must try harder on human rights
Britain should take steps to ban complicity in torture, the most senior elected official at Europe’s largest representative body said in London this week. I don’t suppose the government was too worried. It would be cruel to say that Terry Davis is not a household ...
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Corridors of uncertainty
What makes the movie In The Loop (pictured) so funny is the way it portrays the chaos lurking just behind the veneer of government. Proof of its realism, if any were needed, came in a classic botch-up experienced by the Gazette last week. On Tuesday, we ...
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Legal services at the cliff edge
The Law Management Section’s conference Rupert White mentioned a few days back was, I believe, a great success. Richard Susskind and Stephen Mayson, along with other contributors, delivered an excellent overview of the current state of and future challenges for the legal profession.
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News
Solicitors favour sharp rise in employment tribunal claim limit
More than two-thirds of solicitors are in favour of scrapping the present £25,000 cap for breach of contract claims in employment tribunals, research by the Law Society suggests. The web survey found that 61 (70%) of 87 respondents thought the £25,000 cap should not be retained, ...
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City watchdog ‘not yet ready’ to debate regulation of mortgages
City watchdog the Financial Services Authority is not yet ready to even begin the debate on regulation of the mortgage market, let alone offer recommendations, its chairman Adair Turner admitted today. Speaking at the FSA’s mortgage conference, Lord Turner said that the FSA’s detailed analysis of ...
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Enforcement: Charging and third-party debt orders
Section 24(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 (‘the 1980 act’) provides that an action cannot be brought on any judgment after the expiration of six years from the date on which the judgment became enforceable, unless an extension is granted on application by the judgment creditor.
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New chair for QC panel
Professor Dame Joan Higgins (pictured) has been appointed as the new chairwoman of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel, to replace Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Higgins, 60, has been a lay member of the selection panel since 2005 and will be the third person to chair it since ...
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MPs condemn LSC for ‘insensitive’ Cardiff cuts
MPs have condemned the Legal Services Commission for failing to consult the authorities in Wales over cuts to its Cardiff office. In a report published last week, the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee said the LSC’s ‘insensitive’ failure to contact either the Wales office or the ...
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Law Society president urged to contact Co-op on probate calls
The Law Society’s president has been asked to take up complaints that customers of the Co-operative’s funeral service business are being offered free probate advice from the firm’s legal services department. Following the Gazette’s report two weeks ago (see Gazette [2009] 23 April, 1), several ...
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Bradley review 'revolution' in mental illness treatment of offenders
A report calling for offenders with mental health problems and learning difficulties to be identified and diverted to health rather than criminal justice services may revolutionise the handling of such cases. Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health problems in the criminal ...