All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 104
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News
New chair for QC panel
Professor Dame Joan Higgins (pictured) has been appointed as the new chairwoman of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel, to replace Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Higgins, 60, has been a lay member of the selection panel since 2005 and will be the third person to chair it since ...
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MPs condemn LSC for ‘insensitive’ Cardiff cuts
MPs have condemned the Legal Services Commission for failing to consult the authorities in Wales over cuts to its Cardiff office. In a report published last week, the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee said the LSC’s ‘insensitive’ failure to contact either the Wales office or the ...
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Solicitors launch national brand with bean protest
Law firms appeared outside the Royal Courts of Justice today to stage a symbolic demonstration against the prospect of supermarkets and banks running legal services. To mark the launch of a new brand name QualitySolicitors.com, law firm members handed out cans of beans labelled: ‘Legal services by supermarkets is as ...
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Top legal aid fee-earners named
The squeeze on legal aid spending has not yet consigned the million-pound-a-year legal aid barrister to history, Ministry of Justice statistics revealed last week. Charles Salmon QC of London’s Hare Court topped the annual league table of the highest-paid criminal legal aid barristers. He received ...
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Law Society to review access to justice
The Law Society has launched a wide-ranging review of access to justice to mark the 60th anniversary of legal aid. Andrew Caplen, chairman of the Society’s access to justice committee, will study the long-term policy options for publicly funded criminal and civil legal services, the Society said this week. ...
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Law Society complains over judge’s remarks on solicitor-advocates
The Law Society has made an official complaint over what it says were ‘inappropriate comments’ by a Crown court judge about the alleged incompetence of three solicitor-advocates. Chancery Lane has written to Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, the presiding judge of the south-eastern circuit, about remarks made by ...
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Solicitors and estate agents condemn missed opportunity from budget
Last week’s Budget was a missed opportunity to rescue the housing market and will have no impact on property buying and selling trends, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). The association said that the chancellor had ignored proposals to abolish or reform ...
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Minister questions legal aid priorities at 60th anniversary debate
Legal aid has ‘failed the very people it was set up to protect’ the minister in charge, told a debate hosted by the Law Society this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid Act. In the discussion, chaired by the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, ...
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Solicitor-advocates and quality – the issues
The 1990 Courts and Legal Services Act ended the bar’s monopoly on rights of audience in the higher courts. Since then there have been periodic murmurings of discontent from the bar and judiciary about the quality of solicitor higher court advocates. Many observers have seen this as nothing more than ...
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Thomas to chair tribunals council
Jack Straw, the lord chancellor and secretary of state, has appointed former solicitor Richard Thomas as the new chairman of the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (AJTC). Thomas is currently the information commissioner and deputy chairman of the Consumers Association. He has been appointed for four ...
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News
US education provider in for BPP law school
BPP Holdings, which owns BPP Law School, announced today that it has received a buyout-approach from US education provider Apollo Global. BPP told the stock exchange that it has received a preliminary approach to purchase the company at 620p per share in cash, a 70% premium ...
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News
Vince Cable condemns bankruptcy regime
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable (pictured) has urged restraint in bringing bankruptcy proceedings, saying the process is too ‘cumbersome and costly,’ which allows lawyers to make ‘easy money’. In an interview for the Law Society’s Property in Practice magazine, Cable said that more protections ...
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News
Commission keeps it simple on legal aid contracts
The Legal Services Commission will allow only one model of consortium in the civil bid round for 2010 legal aid contracts, it has announced. The civil contracts tender process will not begin before September, but the LSC said it wanted to provide clarification and explanation of ...
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Bar thinktank proposes contingent legal aid fund
A contingent legal aid fund (CLAF) could ensure access to justice and help solve the legal aid crisis, according to a report published today by a Bar Council thinktank. The Policy Advisory Group, led by former bar chairman Guy Mansfield QC, proposes a self-funding, not-for-profit scheme ...
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Fraud case judge slams solicitor- advocates for ‘incompetence’
An extraordinary public row has erupted over the role of solicitor-advocates after a Crown Court judge told a court that he came close to discharging a jury because of concerns that a solicitor lacked the competence to represent his client properly. Speaking in open court at ...
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Interception and surveillance powers to be reined in by Home Office
The home secretary has announced plans to stop local authorities employing covert surveillance techniques for trivial purposes. Jacqui Smith launched a 12-week public consultation to review the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). It will look at ...
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Family practitioners condemn the government’s flat-fee proposals
Practitioner groups have condemned as ‘disastrous’ and ‘ill-considered’ proposals to change the way family lawyers are paid, claiming they will leave vulnerable families and children without adequate representation. The Family Justice Council said plans to introduce a fixed-fee advocacy scheme for family legal aid cases from ...
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Class war still to be fought in the legal profession
The law and other professions remain closed shops to many from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (see my story this week on the Cabinet Office report in which this was revealed).
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Tax prosecutors to merge with CPS
The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) is to merge with the Crown Prosecution Service four years after it was set up, in a move to save public money and improve efficiency. The Attorney General, Lady Scotland QC (pictured), announced the change following a review of ...
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Firms face ‘legal exposure’ over cancelled contracts
Law firms risk ‘reputational damage and legal exposure’ as increasing numbers of firms seek to defer or cancel training contracts due to the recession, a leading employment lawyer has warned. City firms Denton Wilde Sapte and LG are the latest to ask their prospective September 2009 ...