All News articles – Page 2912
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Grayling in concession on client choice
The justice secretary has agreed to retain client choice and signalled his support for an alternative tender model proposed by the Law Society, based on a modified version of GP contracts in the NHS.
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Chilling effect
As a media legal scandal, it didn’t amount to much: no superinjunctions, celebrities or retired police horses. But my one (so far - touch wood) experience of being sued for defamation as a journalist illustrates an important shortcoming of the government’s current proposals for libel reform.
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Dishonesty reports double as solicitors 'take chances' - SRA
Reports of solicitor dishonesty have almost doubled in the past two years as economic pressures start to bite across the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed today.
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Lord chancellor takes a constitutional in the Lords
The first question Chris Grayling had to field before the House of Lords’ formidable Constitution Committee yesterday looked like an easy toss: would he prefer to be addressed secretary of state or lord chancellor?
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My legal life: Julia Chain
I married an academic, so one of us had to be able to support the family – law seemed like a good profession. Legal education back then taught us nothing about dealing with clients – it was six months of learning by rote. What was excellent was the training. I ...
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Cashflow outlook worsening, new LMS quarterly survey shows
Cashflow problems are worsening for law firms, according to results from the Law Society’s Law Management Section (LMS) financial benchmarking quarterly. The survey, the first results of which are to be published tomorrow, found that 40% of firms were experiencing more cashflow pressures than in the previous quarter. Firms' responses ...
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Magna Carta: four of a kind
With one caveat, Obiter is delighted with the plan to bring the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta into one place to kick off the 800th anniversary year in 2015. The unification, supported by magic circle firm Linklaters, will provide a one-off chance to see the four extant copies ...
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Can’t stand newspapers? Then stand up for a free press
Every collector of modern quotations knows Tom Stoppard’s: ‘I’m with you on the free press. It’s the newspapers I can’t stand.’ Probably most of us would agree. What’s less well known is the context of the quote, perhaps because the play from which it comes, Night and Day (1978*), now ...
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Cold called
To be honest, I knew I was asking for trouble by picking up the phone at teatime. The only calls that come through on that particular landline are from investment advisers or chaps asking for my passwords so they can fix my IT. Sure enough, when I picked up the ...
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Bring out your dead
If 200 people in England and Wales dropped dead one week from a mysterious unknown cause, you’d think our supposedly nanny state would learn about it right away.
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Tarzan and the briefs
In his heyday, Michael ‘Tarzan’ Heseltine MP was renowned for finding the G-spot of the Conservative Party. This week, Lord Heseltine of Thenford seems to have worked the trick across the political spectrum. Whatever the likelihood of it being implemented, his ‘No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth’ report brought ...
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Win tickets to West End play based in PI firm
Britain’s hottest young playwright, Nick Payne, has picked the claims management industry as the subject of his new play, The Same Deep Water as Me, at London’s Donmar Warehouse. The witty and biting portrait of contemporary Britain is set in Scorpion Claims, ‘Luton’s finest personal injury lawyers’, where, apparently a ...
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LETR: business as usual for the bar as report rejects common training
Training for barristers and solicitors is almost certain to remain separate following the Legal Education and Training Review’s rejection of the idea of a common professional course.
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How To: create a shared back-office
Tuckers is a criminal law firm – one of the UK’s largest. We cover practice areas where margins have been severely challenged by changes in public policy and public funding. In February 2012, we announced our intention to make our billing, diary management and other back-office operations available to rival ...
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Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
ASAB exists to further the understanding of animal behaviour at all educational levels, and to promote research that improves animal welfare and conservation.
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Firms still hostile to judicial ambitions
More than half (57%) of solicitors eligible for judicial appointment say that they could not rely on the support of their firms when applying for the bench, according to research to be published by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the Gazette can reveal. In contrast, 80% of barristers are confident ...
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SRA intervenes after solicitor arrested
A solicitor from Cheshire has been suspended from practising after he was arrested on suspicion of fraud. The Solicitors Regulation Authority today intervened to prevent partner Andrew Taylor from practising at his firm in Cheadle. Police confirmed last week that they had arrested a 56-year-old man on suspicion of fraud ...
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Portal protestors issue letter before action
Personal injury lawyers have started a process that could lead to a judicial review into reforms planned for the Road Traffic Accident Portal next April.
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Acted for Ian Brady in prison application
Who? Corinne Singer, 51, a mental health consultant at virtual national firm Scott-Moncrieff & Associates (Scomo). Why is she in the news? Acted for moors murderer Ian Brady in his application to be moved from Ashworth maximum security hospital back to prison. Singer submitted that, because Brady is not benefiting ...
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Adviser warns on traffic accident portal fees
Major upheaval of the personal injury sector is happening too quickly and without evidence to support it, according to the government’s own adviser on the subject.