All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 73
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News
Government faces intense pressure over legal aid cuts
The government faced intense lobbying over its legal aid reforms this week, as the Law Society put forward a raft of alternative measures to preserve the legal aid budget, and the shadow legal aid minister warned that the government’s cuts will ‘destroy’ civil legal advice. The ...
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Is opposition to legal aid cuts gaining momentum?
There are now five days left before the consultation on the government’s proposed reforms to legal aid closes on 14 February, St Valentine’s Day. It is noticeable that in the last few weeks lobbying against the plans, which would see the scope of legal aid radically ...
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Free national debt advice service set to close
The Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) free national debt advice service is set to close after the government axed its £25m-a-year funding. Last month, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, confirmed that funding for the free face-to-face advice service, which has operated since 2005, will ...
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News
Embrace electronic working, criminal law solicitors told
The Law Society has called on criminal law firms to embrace electronic working, as the Crown Prosecution Services seeks to become completely digital by April 2012. Both bodies want to see more firms sign up to use secure email, to enable information to be shared between ...
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ACS:Law cannot drop filesharing cases – judge
The Patents County Court yesterday stayed the hearing of actions for alleged illegal file-sharing, brought by London firm ACS:Law on behalf of its clients MediaCAT. His Honour Judge Birss refused to discontinue the cases in the manner requested by the claimants, saying the notices of ...
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New planning proposals risk ‘uncertainty and chaos’ in property market
Proposed changes in the government’s Localism Bill could bring uncertainty and chaos to the property market, the Law Society has warned. The bill proposes changes to planning rules, including strengthening the power of local authorities to tackle abuses of the system. It ...
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Surge in disputes over trusts, figures show
Legal disputes over trusts have soared by 238% during the recession, according to City firm Wedlake Bell. Figures from the Ministry of Justice show the number of claims in the High Court in London involving trusts rose to 44 in 2009, up from 13 in ...
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Marketing collective for brain injury specialists to launch in April
A nationwide network of specialist brain injury lawyers, The Brain Injury Group, is set to launch this April, the Gazette can reveal. The Brain Injury Group will work in tandem with other professional services that provide medical, rehabilitation, welfare and financial support to people who have ...
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News
Row erupts over police interpreters
Detainees at police stations in four areas of the north-west are at risk of miscarriages of justice due to the police forces’ use of inadequate interpreters, the Gazette has been told.
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Supreme Court issues guidance on courtroom twitter use
The Supreme Court has today given the ‘green light’ to allow people to ‘tweet’ from inside the courtroom. It has issued guidance on the use of live text-based communication by legal teams, journalists and members of the public of what is going on in court. ...
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News
Council cuts reprieve for legal advice centres
The High Court has quashed a decision by administrative body London Councils to cut £10m from its £26.4m grant scheme for voluntary organisations across the capital, including legal advice centres. The decision would have left more than 200 groups, including the Mary Ward Legal Advice ...
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Citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham to close
Five citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham are expected to close their doors next week, unless they can raise £50,000 per month to continue, after the city council withdrew all of its £600,000-a-year funding. Without new money, the City Centre, Northfield, Tyseley, Handsworth and Kingstanding services ...
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News
Supreme Court widens definition of violent abuse
Solicitors have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that domestic violence extends beyond physical contact to include other forms of violent conduct.
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News
Conveyancers pressured into tax avoidance
Conveyancing solicitors are being pressured to become involved in stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance schemes that cost the public purse around £35m, the Gazette has learned. To protect solicitors and help them challenge requests from clients or third parties to become involved in such schemes, ...
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News
Debt advice service to close
The Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) free national debt advice service is set to close after the government axed its £25m-a-year funding. Last month, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, confirmed that funding for the free face-to-face advice service, which has operated since 2005, will ...
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News
MoJ pledges £29m for victims of crime
The Ministry of Justice has announced that £29.4m will be dedicated to support vulnerable victims of crime over the next three years. The victim and witness voluntary sector will receive £9.8m annually from the MoJ. This will include £3.5m a year to support the work of ...
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News
'Bomb threats’ lead London firm to stop fileshare work
A London law firm has withdrawn from high-profile cases against alleged illegal file-sharers because of ‘criminal attacks’ and ‘bomb threats’. ACS:Law had been pursuing 26 cases on behalf of its client MediaCAT, which alleges that its copyright has been infringed by illegal file-sharers. But in a ...
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News
New duty for barristers to report misconduct
Barristers will face a duty to report misconduct by their colleagues under new rules proposed by the bar’s regulator. The Bar Standards Board last week published its fourth and final paper in a series of consultations designed to modernise and clarify the bar’s code of conduct. ...
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News
Cuts will ‘prevent young lawyers from entering legal aid sector’
The proposed cuts to legal aid could prevent low-income students from entering the legal aid sector, the Junior Lawyers Division has warned. In response to the government’s consultation on legal aid reform, the JLD has said that the proposed £350m budget cuts will ‘severely affect’ entry ...
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News
Legal aid cuts spark child abduction fears
Leading family solicitors have warned that withdrawing legal aid for private law family cases could lead desperate parents to abduct their children. Lawyers also predicted that the government’s reforms would prompt people to make false allegations of domestic violence in order to obtain legal aid. ...