All News articles – Page 1787
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News
Law in a cold climate
In response to our inquiry about solicitors braving the Arctic (see Obiter, 25 September), we have been sent a chilling tale. In fact Alistair Duff, a partner at HBJ Gateley Wareing has a number of stories to tell. It all started in 1987, when Duff, along ...
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Litigation cash woe
Increased demand for litigation funding amid the current financial crisis may not be met because backers are taking on more lucrative work, an expert has warned. Hedge funds and private equity houses – which were providing more and more cash to the emerging third-party funding market ...
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The case for the defence
As Graham Zellick steps down as chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, he tells of his fears that budget cuts could seriously impede the body’s work. ‘I do not think we feature very much on the radar,’ says Professor Graham Zellick, retiring chairman of the ...
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Personal injury interest calculation
Rodney Nelson-Jones presents his annual update on calculating interest for personal injury claims.
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Two men in a boat
Charles Russell solicitor Charlie Marlow has launched his bid to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 8) by winning a race in the stormy waters off Plymouth. Marlow and friend Matthew Mackaness are to row alternate two-hour shifts for the ...
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Blue collar
District judges sported their new Betty Jackson-designed robes as they processed from Westminster Abbey to the judges’ breakfast in the Palace of Westminster to mark the opening of the legal year last week. To fit in with their judicial colleagues they wore barristers’ wigs for the occasion, but these will ...
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Claimants are being short-changed
I write in response to your recent news item headlined ‘lawyers blamed for negligence fees rise’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 2).
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Banks silent over client money
Confused solicitors have called on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to clarify what would happen if a bank’s collapse wiped out pooled client money. At the end of September, the FSCS told the Gazette that, as long as solicitors told their bank they were depositing ...
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Rehearsing for the big bang
As the profession prepares for the advent of legal disciplinary partnerships, a balance must be struck between the need for public protection and greater flexibility. The new types of legal firm that we have been talking about for so many years will shortly start to become ...
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Call for ban over HIPs
An investigation that exposed home information packs (HIPs) as flawed has prompted calls for insurance-backed personal searches to be banned. Birmingham Trading Standards inspected HIPs at 15 estate agents, randomly selecting six packs for scrutiny. Five contained false or misleading search information. ...
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Reaching a global audience
Hundreds of lawyers and students are fighting injustice as part of the Law Society’s international work. About 18 months ago, the international human rights work of the Law Society was more or less moribund. The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) existed, but had no resources. Its ...
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Arbitration
Real property – Mining – Coal authority – Compensation – Loss – Subsidence Coal Authority v (1) FW Davidson (2) WE Davidson: QBD (TCC) (Mr Justice Coulson): 9 September 2008. ...
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Legal aid despair
As a solicitor still doing some legal aid work while trying to get out of legal aid entirely, I read your Opinion in last week’s Gazette with interest (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 8).
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Legal aid a 'cottage industry'
Government policies are creating a ‘cottage industry’ of legal aid provision, with large firms being driven out of the market, solicitors warned this week as a major firm shed its bulk criminal legal aid practice. Hickman & Rose, whose managing partner Jane Hickman is a ...
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Legal aid leads Europe
England and Wales has fewer courts per head of population than Belgium, Ireland or the Russian Federation, but spends at least four times more on legal aid than any other Council of Europe jurisdiction, an official survey reveals this week. The Council’s European Commission for the ...
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Firm breaks new ground by sending PI work to South Africa
Personal injury cases are to be outsourced to South Africa this week in the first trial of its kind, the Gazette has learned. Hertfordshire firm Underwoods has signed a deal with an unnamed practice to test whether road traffic accident (RTA) cases that fall under the ...
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New advice for detainees branded 'illegal' in report
Suspects’ rights to consult a solicitor of their choice have been undermined by potentially illegal reforms to the legal aid process, leading academics said this week. Professors Lee Bridges and Ed Cape, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, accused ...
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Franchising, construction, acquisitions and investments
Toy story: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised toy retailer Hamleys on a franchising deal that will allow it to open up to 20 stores in India. The franchise will be run and operated by a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private ...
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Access to justice
It would be a shame if readers obtained a misleading impression as a result of the headline in your recent news item about our views on the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC) fixed fees (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 1).
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American perspective: we interview the head of the ABA
Paul Rogerson speaks to Tommy Wells, president of the 400,000-strong American Bar Association, about Wall Street, the White House – and Guantanamo. PR: Perhaps we should start with ...