All News articles – Page 1814
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News
Sharia 'could have averted crisis'
The use of Sharia ethics might have helped avert the current financial crisis, the head of a legal think-tank said this week. ‘The continuing turmoil has cast Islamic finance centre stage,’ Malik Dahlan, principal and chief lawyer at Institution Quraysh, told a London seminar. ‘Were ...
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Outcry at lawyer ban
Former Lord Justice Sir Henry Brooke and other legal figures have expressed outrage at the UK’s decision to refuse entry to a Nepalese human rights lawyer on a European speaking tour. Human rights lawyer, journalist and author Jitman Basnet has been detained and tortured by Maoist ...
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'Bypass solicitor and go straight to the bar'
Consumers will be urged to bypass solicitors and instruct barristers directly in an initiative launched by the Bar Council today. A report entitled ‘Straight there, no detours’, says that 89% of consumers who went directly to a barrister believed they got ‘better value for money’ ...
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Guess that's why they called it the blues...
‘This house believes that Britain has become a more safe, just and tolerant society under Labour. Debate.’ With the battlelines thus drawn, the Society of Conservative Lawyers locked horns with the Society of Labour Lawyers, with Marcel Berlins, Guardian journalist and law lecturer, chairing the protagorean feast. ...
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Legal services body director suspended
The director-elect of a pioneering shared legal services organisation has been suspended from his current role as head of legal and democratic services at Northamptonshire County Council. Chris Whittington was appointed director of Legal Services Lincolnshire (LSL) in October and is expected to take up his ...
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Overseas delivery charges
Offshoring receives an indifferent press, not least because most of us have, at some time, engaged in semantic jousts with poorly paid call centre operatives possessing an inadequate grasp of colloquial English. Punting customer-facing jobs to Mumbai or Manila is fraught with risk – witness the growing phenomenon of ‘reverse ...
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Technology mergers, charity deals and educational investments
Pop for poppies: South-west firm Wilsons advised charity Help for Heroes, which cares for British soldiers post-conflict, on an agreement with music producer Simon Cowell’s (inset) production company for a share of profits received from the sale of music single Hero. Finalists from ...
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Civil procedure
Costs – Allocation – Conduct – Multi-track – Small claims David Peakman v Linbrooke Services Ltd: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Goldring, Lady Justice Smith): 13 November 2008 The ...
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Rate of firm closures increases
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) says it expects to shut down 56% more law firms this year than it did last. The number of ‘interventions’ could reach 75 by the end of the year, compared with 48 in 2007. Intervention involves the SRA sending an agent ...
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Medico-legal collapse hits solicitors
Hundreds of medical reports for personal injury claims will be delayed following the collapse of one of the country’s largest medical reporting agencies. E-Reporting Group (ERG) fell into administration on 18 November, leaving 9,000 doctors unpaid for completed reports and pending reports due to be sent ...
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Solicitors warned over property competitions
Solicitors advising clients who are selling their homes through ‘house competitions’ must act with caution to avoid falling foul of the gambling laws or complicity in fraud or money laundering, the Law Society has warned. The collapse of the housing market has prompted a growing number ...
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Copyright, music and exemption: playing music in public
A government review of copyright exemptions for playing of recorded music may force some not-for-profit bodies to turn off their TVs, radios and CD players. They and charitable bodies may soon decide that silence is golden if the repeal of current exemptions means they will have ...
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News
Law Society Council: opportunity lost
I write in connection with your report of the Law Society Council debate on reform of Council’s size and composition (see [2008] Gazette, 20 November, 2).
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News
Unresolved issues relating to the role of the Supreme Court
Despite the refreshing openness of last week’s judicial seminar on the Supreme Court, some of the most difficult questions remain unanswered. We learned, for example, that more than 30 applications have been received for the three judicial posts that will have become vacant by next October ...
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Criminal law
Police – Torts – False imprisonment – Suspicion – Terrorism – Unlawful arrest Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Mohamed Raissi: CA (Civ Div) (Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, Lords Justice Maurice Kay, Stanley Burnton): ...
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Spending cuts highlight HMCS property plight
Chancellor Alistair Darling’s hopes of shaving £5bn from public spending by 2011 may quickly run into difficulties, a Gazette investigation of efficiency plans at HM Court Service (HMCS) suggests. In his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) on Monday, Darling said he expects savings from ‘more ...
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Land Registry DIY disaster
How embarrassing for the Land Registry. It thought it could handle all property transactions and cut out the solicitors with electronic conveyancing and their own rules. Now we find that electronic conveyancing is shelved and the rules have been changed to make solicitors the last line of defence against fraud ...
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Vulnerable face discrimination
Vulnerable offenders suffer ‘systemic and routine discrimination’ at the hands of the police, court and prison services, according to a damning report.
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News
Fears over UKBA immigration shake-up
Concerns are mounting in the legal profession over new immigration rules described by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) as the biggest shake-up of border security in 45 years. Tiers 2 and 5 of the points-based system, which go live today, require 20,000 employers to have ...
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In-house lawyers, the Gazette needs you
Take part in our survey of what in-house lawyers are thinking, and doing, about outsourcing work offshore. To follow this week's feature on outsourcing and offshoring legal work (see Features section), the Gazette needs your input to a survey on what businesses are doing in terms ...