All News articles – Page 1756
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News
Diverting mentally ill from criminal justice pays dividends
Diverting the mentally ill away from the criminal justice system and towards health services could save £20,000 per case, a report has claimed. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health report, Diversion: A better way for criminal justice and mental health, compared the costs of criminal ...
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Commissioner sets new complaints targets
The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner has urged Chancery Lane to make complaints-handling a priority during the transition to the new structure introduced by the Legal Services Act. The new independent Office for Legal Complaints becomes fully operational in 2011.
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Warning over employment dispute resolution code
A senior employment lawyer warned that ‘common sense is not that common’ as the government revealed a new code for resolving workplace disputes. The new Acas code, which takes effect from 6 April, replaces the three-step grievance and disciplinary system of written statement, meeting and ...
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Firm closures: new figures
Nearly 120 more law firms closed in 2008 than in 2007, while four fewer firms opened, Solicitors Regulation Authority statistics show. Despite more firms closing down, 889 new practices were opened in 2008, while 442 closed that year. An SRA spokesman said: ‘The number of firms ...
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A certain vintage
It is a lunchtime glass of wine, she tells Obiter, that keeps 73-year-old legal secretary Angela Rogers going through the afternoon. She has been with Shropshire firm Wace Morgan since January 1960 – that’s 49 years! – and has seen many changes. ‘I have worked through the invention of ...
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Government move to slash costs in defamation cases
New proposals to limit costs in defamation proceedings were published today by the Ministry of Justice. Mandatory cost-capping and limiting recoverable hourly rates are both being considered. The development comes amid mounting concern about the high cost of legal fees in defamation cases.
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Chancery Lane unveils client care package
The Law Society and the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner have announced a range of measures costing £275,000 aimed at improving client care by solicitors. Last June the commissioner, Zahida Manzoor, announced she would be imposing a £275,000 fine on the Society following her decision ...
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EC intervenes in Bulgarian opening
The European Commission has intervened on behalf of a coalition of law firms attempting to set up practices in Bulgaria. DLA Piper and CMS Cameron McKenna, along with Austrian practices Wolf Theiss, CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati complained to the commission in November, accusing the Bulgarian government ...
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Fury over SRA’s plan for a non-voting BME board member
Groups representing black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors have condemned a proposal to co-opt a BME member on to the Solicitors Regulation Authority board without giving them voting rights. The proposal is a response to Lord Ouseley’s controversial report on the disproportionate number of BME ...
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European ruling deals blow to in-house confidentiality
The group representing general counsel at FTSE-100 companies has been refused permission to intervene in a case on the extent of privilege enjoyed by in-house lawyers – on the ground that neither it nor its members have a ‘direct interest in the result’. Issuing preliminary rulings ...
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Taking the biscuit
In case you don’t know, the difference between a cake and a biscuit is that a biscuit gets moist as it stales, while a cake dries. This is a vital distinction as, of course, it underpins Marks & Spencer’s long-running case against HMRC, claiming a rebate for an awful lot ...
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For whom the Bell tolls
In these risk-averse times, hats off to City firm Wedlake Bell for getting involved in the last great nautical challenge: circumnavigating Antarctica solo by oar power. Adventurer Olly Hicks reckons his 15,000-mile ‘Virgin Global Row’ (spot the other sponsor) will take between 18 and 24 ...
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Covering our backs
Your correspondent Ian McLachlan believes that conveyancing is a ‘disorganised mess’ and he is probably correct (see [2009] Gazette, 19 February, 11). However, it is not a mess made by conveyancers. Clients and solicitors no longer trust each other, so everything has to be documented – even the ownership of ...
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Office of Public Guardian launches lasting power of attorney guidance
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has issued new guidance about drafting lasting powers of attorney following criticism of delays, high prices and ‘daft’ bureaucracy (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 4).
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Not asked to ‘lobby’
Your news item ‘Firms face lobbying scrutiny’ (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 6) fails to distinguish between the lobbying that some parliamentarians are involved in and consultancy arrangements that some firms make with lawyer MPs.
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A liberty-based approach to rights could strengthen core freedoms
Philosopher John Stuart Mill quipped: ‘He who knows only his side of the case knows little of that.’ Reviewing The Assault on Liberty: what went wrong with rights last week, Roger Smith (of Justice) went further. Amid flattery – and mischievous misrepresentation – he denies ...
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Shelter chief appointed legal complaints ombudsman
The embryonic Office for Legal Complaints has announced that its first chief ombudsman will be Adam Sampson (pictured), currently chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter. Elizabeth France, OLC chair, said: ‘The chief ombudsman will play a critical role in building the new disputeresolution system ...
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UK firms join worldwide Madoff case alliance
Four London law firms were among 34 practices from around the world that met last week in Madrid to launch an international network of lawyers acting for the alleged victims of the Madoff scandal. Bristows, Edwin Coe, Rawlings Giles and Speechlys have joined the group, which ...
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Legal aid call for collaborative law
State aid should be available for divorcing couples to use collaborative law, family lawyers group Resolution says in the first study of take-up of the non-court process in the UK. The report, to be published today, says that poorer couples are being denied the opportunity ...