Law Society Gazette 9 April 2010

Legal aid contracts

Criminal solicitors have warned that a ‘cull’ of firms has begun after Legal Services Commission figures revealed that 5% of firms did not secure new contracts. The recent tender for criminal contracts ended with one in 20 firms failing to secure the right to do publicly funded work beyond July 2010.

14 April 2000

Solicitors’ prosperity hits new heights

The solicitors’ profession has seen its income – which now stands at £8.6 billion – grow by almost three times the rate of inflation, new statistics have revealed. The Law Society’s annual statistical report shows that gross fees reported in 1999 increased by 8.3% on the year before, while the retail price index rose by 3.6%. In addition, the number of solicitors on the roll has for the first time passed 100,000.

11 April 1990

Manchester prison riots

A week before one of the worst prison riots in British history ripped apart Strangeways Prison, a client of the Manchester firm Tuckers climbed onto the roof of the imposing Victorian building. He was talked down by one of the firm’s solicitors who was later told by another inmate ‘he went one week too soon’.

30 April 1980

Reform of pre-trial procedure

Was it not the actor Robert Morley who, in the role of a judge, had the splendid line ‘Justice, madam? This is a court of law, not justice!’? Let us take that rather solemn joke as our theme in considering the reform of civil litigation in this country. Are we as officers of the court seeking justice in litigation or, as the paid representatives of our clients, are we seeking legal success?

April 1960

‘Becoming a solicitor’

The council have published an illustrated pamphlet entitled Becoming a Solicitor which is intended to give boys and girls who are thinking of entering the profession and those who have to advise them a brief account of the content and cost of training for a prospective solicitor, the newly qualified man’s prospects and the work which solicitors do.

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