All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 67
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News
Conveyancing Quality Scheme makes progress
The Law Society’s chief executive gave an update on the progress of the Quality Conveyancing Scheme at the property section’s annual conference last week. Since registration for the scheme launched in January, Desmond Hudson said 913 firms have applied for the quality mark. ...
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News
Rightmove founder enters conveyancing market
The founder of Rightmove has today launched online residential conveyancing service In-deed, intended to shake-up the conveyancing market. Harry Hill, the founder of Rightmove and former chief executive of estate agency Countrywide, said the service would make the home sale process simpler, more transparent and ...
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News
Conveyancing firms must change to compete, solicitors warned
Residential conveyancing firms must change their business models to withstand the threat posed by new entrants to the legal market place, delegates at the Law Society’s annual property section conference heard last week. The Society’s chief executive Des Hudson said the introduction of alternative business structures, ...
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News
Bar Standards Board reviews barristers’ CPD requirements
The Bar Standards Board has announced a review of the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for barristers. The biggest proposed change would see an increase in the number of CPD hours that members of the bar are required to do each year, doubling it from 12 to 24. A more ...
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News
Legal aid award finalists announced
The Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group has announced the finalists for its Lawyer of the Year 2011. They include Razi Shah, solicitor at Windsor firm Appleby Shaw, who successfully appealed against the custodial sentence given to Munir Hussain. Hussain had been convicted ...
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News
Solicitors start road safety campaign
A Cardiff firm has launched a national road safety campaign. Elisabeth Roth and Liz Phipps, solicitors in the personal injury team at Cardiff firm NewLaw, have spearheaded the Improve Roads, Improve Safety (IRIS) initiative in an attempt to reduce deaths on the road. ...
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News
Harrow Law Centre's community approach is the 'model to follow'
The multi-funded community approach adopted by the newly launched Harrow Law Centre is the ‘model to follow’ for the voluntary sector, according to the centre’s chair Pamela Fitzpatrick. Lord Justice Mummery opened the centre, which provides advice on social welfare law, public law, community care, housing, ...
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News
CPS under fire over advocate panels
The Crown Prosecution Service faced pressure from both its own inspectorate and the Bar Council this week over its procurement of external advocates. The Gazette has learned that the Bar Council is seeking advice on a judicial review of the CPS’s new advocate panels. ...
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News
Chancery Lane seeks ‘pause’ to reforms of legal aid
The president of the Law Society has written to justice secretary Ken Clarke calling for a pause in the proposed legal aid reforms. Linda Lee said the proposals ‘amount to a fundamental reshaping of the legal aid scheme’, removing from scope many areas of law that ...
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News
MoJ publishes action plan to strengthen UK’s legal services position
Plans to strengthen the UK’s reputation as a global leader in legal services were unveiled by the government yesterday. The new action plan sets out how the Ministry of Justice and UK Trade & Industry aim to promote the UK as a centre of legal excellence, ...
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News
Sky News launches live Supreme Court coverage
Sky News has today launched live coverage of proceedings in the UK’s Supreme Court. The court’s hearings and judgments can now be ...
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News
Court upholds right to bring judicial reviews ‘in the public interest’
A civil liberties campaigner has won a judicial review of the government’s attempt to remove legal aid for cases brought ‘in the public interest’. Maya Evans, represented by Birmingham firm Public Interest Lawyers, challenged amendments made to the Legal Services Commission’s funding code that meant ...
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News
Concessions expected in legal aid bill due next month
The bill to implement the government’s legal aid reforms is to be published next month, and is likely to contain some key concessions, the Gazette has been told. Sources within Parliament have indicated that the rules for funding in private family cases, where there is an ...
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News
Families bereaved through crime face £37,000 costs
Families bereaved through serious criminal acts face average costs of £37,000 in the wake of their loss, according to figures released this week. The commissioner for victims and witnesses, Louise Casey, published the results of a survey of 36 families who had been bereaved through murder, ...
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News
Mixed reaction to Theresa May's charging switch
Criminal law solicitors have given a cautious welcome to the home secretary’s decision to transfer charging powers from the Crown Prosecution Service to the police. Earlier this week, Theresa May outlined plans for what she called a ‘radical leap forward in policing’, aimed at reducing bureaucracy ...
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News
New guidelines bring in tougher sentences for burglars
Burglars will face tougher sentences with the impact on their victims at the heart of the process under proposals published today by the Sentencing Council. The draft guidelines, which cover the offences of domestic burglary, non-domestic burglary and aggravated burglary, introduce a single framework for Crown ...
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News
Fixed fees could spark legal aid 'exodus', says top family lawyer
A leading family lawyer has warned that the new fixed fees regime for private family cases, which came into force this week, could lead to a ‘significant exodus’ of firms from family legal aid. Christina Blacklaws, Law Society Council member for child care, said the ...
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News
NI solicitors withdraw services over legal aid dispute
Criminal solicitors in Northern Ireland have withdrawn their services in Crown court cases in a dispute over legal aid fees. Their action follows the introduction of a payment regime that solicitors say cuts the fees paid for Crown court work by 54% in real terms. ...
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News
Solicitors from Hell to face legal action
The Law Society is set to launch legal proceedings against the owner of Solicitors from Hell, the website that blacklists law firms and solicitors. Chancery Lane will seek two injunctions against the site and its owner Rick Kordowski: one on behalf of solicitors and firms named ...
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News
Lessons for lawyers in Northern Ireland from past lawyer ‘strikes’
Following the introduction last month of new fees for criminal legal aid work, solicitors in Northern Ireland have withdrawn their services in Crown court cases. Pearse MacDermott, executive member of the Solicitors Criminal Bar Association told the Gazette that the rates of pay for Crown court ...