All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 25
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News
Profession’s growth 'defies gravity’, SRA figures show
The number of practising solicitors in England and Wales has risen sharply to more than 120,000, with their ranks growing at an accelerated rate despite the economic pressures faced by the profession, the latest figures have shown. One leading industry commentator claimed that the rise ...
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Support grows for regulation of will-writing
A call for evidence on whether will-writing should become a regulated activity has received a huge response from the profession and public, with consumer bodies in favour of regulation. The Legal Services Board Consumer Panel has received 380 case studies from lawyers, members of the public ...
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Are judges getting feisty?
You might expect a court’s annual report to be a pretty dull read. But not so the Court of Appeal’s annual report, released earlier this month, with a forward by the lord chief justice Lord Judge.
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Forced mediation will encourage ‘excessive demands’ in family disputes
Pushing parties into mediation in family disputes will encourage badly behaved partners to make ‘excessive demands’, an MP warned in a parliamentary debate on legal aid reform last week. Labour MP Karen Buck, who tabled an adjournment debate on legal aid that took place last week, ...
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Publish complaints against firms, Consumer Panel urges
The body that advises the Legal Services Board on the interests of consumers has called for the publication of complaints made against law firms if they have been upheld. Responding to an open consultation by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) on whether its decisions should be published, the Legal Services Consumer ...
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News
Motion to widen Society membership withdrawn
Law Society Council member Derek French withdrew his motion proposing to allow barristers and legal executives to become members of the Law Society, at the Society’s council last week. However, French said the Society’s Membership Board has agreed to prepare a paper on the issue, which ...
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Law firms face new year 'cash crunch'
Law firms will face a ‘cash crunch’ at the end of January, but are likely to find it difficult to source finance from their banks, experts warned this week The news came as the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed that it wrote to the top 50 law ...
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News
Consumers unattracted by non-legal brands, survey suggests
Two-thirds of consumers would not want to buy their legal services through non-legal brands, according to a survey of 2,000 clients seen exclusively by the Gazette. In the poll by law firm referral service Contact Law, 66% of consumers said they would not be happy to ...
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News
Out of court disposals warning
Too many cases are being dealt with by out of court disposals where the police are acting as prosecutor and judge, a Court of Appeal judge said last week. Giving the Roscoe lecture on criminal justice, Lord Justice Leveson pointed out that 450,000 cases were dealt ...
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Law Society should open to non-solicitors, council member proposes
The Law Society Council will vote on a motion next week that would see barristers and legal executives given the right to seek full membership of the Society. The motion has been submitted by Derek French, Law Society Council member for Birmingham District, rather than by ...
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Lawyers switched on to technology
Two-thirds of lawyers now use a BlackBerry device for work, and three-quarters check their messages either constantly, or at least every hour, research has suggested. A survey of 100 solicitors from firms of all sizes by research company Jures, on behalf of legal publisher LexisNexis, also ...
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Bar Council visits Gulf to promote barristers
A delegation of senior barristers has begun a visit to the Gulf this week in a bid to promote the English Bar. The Bar Council group. led by chairman Nicholas Green QC (pictured) and chairman-elect Peter Lodder QC, will visit Oman, the United Arab Emirates and ...
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News
EU bill set to confirm UK sovereignty
The government’s EU bill will ‘place beyond doubt’ the principle of parliamentary sovereignty over EU law, minister for Europe David Lidington said last week. He told the UK Association of European Lawyers that the bill will put on a ‘statutory footing’ the principle that EU law ...
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News
Moses backs jury questions in criminal trials
Judges should present a list of questions to jurors in criminal trials to guide them in reaching a verdict, a senior judge suggested last week. Lord Justice Moses said the move, which was recommended in Lord Justice Auld’s 2001 review of the criminal courts, would reduce ...
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News
Regulator sets out guidance on pre-emptive ABS discussions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued new guidance setting out what is permitted in firms’ negotiations with potential investors ahead of the licensing of alternative business structures (ABSs) in October next year. The guidance stresses that non-lawyer individuals or businesses are currently prohibited from having any ...
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News
Is trial by jury under pressure from judges?
Jury trials have been in the spotlight in the last few weeks, with two significant speeches by senior judges focusing on juries. The lord chief justice called for tough sanctions against jurors who surf the web to find information about defendants and witnesses in the case they are sitting on ...
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Trial judges should put questions to jurors, says Lord Justice Moses
Judges should present a list of questions to jurors in criminal trials to guide them in reaching a verdict, a senior judge suggested yesterday. Lord Justice Moses said the move, which was recommended in Lord Justice Auld’s 2001 review of the criminal courts, would reduce the ...
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News
Forensic expert witnesses should be accredited, warns judge
A lack of accreditation of expert witnesses means that anyone with a scientific background and sufficient ‘brass neck’ could set themselves up as a forensic science expert and mislead the court, a Court of Appeal judge has warned. Lord Justice Leveson told the Forensic Science Society ...
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News
More than 300 firms reform as LDPs
More than 300 firms have registered as legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs), according to the latest figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, indicating an acceleration of takeup in advance of the rules permitting alternative business structures (ABSs) next year. There were 304 registered LDPs at the end ...
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Increase alcohol tax to fund legal aid, says Law Society
The government should increase tax on alcohol to fund legal aid, in recognition of the extent to which criminal behaviour results from alcohol abuse, the Law Society has suggested. In a report to be published today reflecting the findings of the Society’s Access to Justice Review, ...