All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 79
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News
Court figures show rise in FTSE 100 litigation
The number of High Court cases involving FTSE 100 companies has risen 16% in the last year, research from legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell has revealed. In the year to 30 June 2010, the study shows there were 179 cases involving the FTSE 100, ...
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News
LSC hit by £300,000 legal bill over tender
The Legal Services Commission faces a £300,000 bill for the Law Society’s legal costs, after losing a High Court battle over its family tender process. The LSC said it could not disclose how much it had spent on its own legal fees in defending the action, ...
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News
PII spend predicted to hit record high
Solicitors are facing the ‘most challenging’ professional indemnity insurance market in years, commentators said this week ahead of Friday’s renewal deadline. The news came as the Law Society launched a SafetyNet scheme designed to help firms that cannot obtain cover. Brokers ...
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News
High Court to rule on LSC tender review
The High Court will rule today on the outcome of the Law Society’s expedited judicial review challenge of the Legal Services Commission’s family tender. The three-day proceedings heard by Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Beatson concluded on Monday, with judgment expected to be handed down ...
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News
Flood liability warning for conveyancers
Conveyancers could be exposing themselves to liability by failing to obtain information about flooding, which is set to become the latest ‘uninsurable risk’, a leading commercial property solicitor has warned. Suzanne Gill, a commercial property partner at McGrigors in London, said that flooding is affecting an ...
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News
Family contracts quashed
Family contracts have effectively been quashed following today’s judgment in the Law Society’s successful judicial review of the family tender process. Giving judgment this evening, the High Court declared the LSC’s failure to give advance notice of the requirement for panel membership as unlawful. It also ...
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Law Society wins family tender challenge
The Law Society has won its High Court challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s family tender process. Lord Justice Moses said the process was ‘irrational’. He said it was ‘contrary to the LSC’s own ends’ not to have given firms the details ...
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Legal Services Board rules out fresh referral fee ban
The Legal Services Board has today effectively ruled out a ban on referral fees, but is likely to impose greater standards of transparency in their use. In a paper outlining plans to improve regulation of referral fee arrangements, the LSB says there is not ‘sufficient evidence’ ...
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News
Anti-piracy firm website breach
The website of London anti-piracy firm ACS:Law has been attacked, leading to the leak of email archives and personal data of thousands of internet users. It is understood that the names and addresses of more than 5,000 people alleged by the firm to have engaged ...
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Law Society launches scheme to deliver PII help
The Law Society’s professional indemnity insurance helpline is braced for a surge in calls from firms looking to secure cover before the 1 October renewal deadline. To assist those firms having difficulty securing renewal terms, the Law Society today launched a SafetyNet scheme. ...
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News
Surge in judges ordering parenting classes
The number of warring parents being ordered by judges to attend parenting classes has tripled to 3,000 in five months, the Gazette has learned. Figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) have shown a threefold rise in the number of separating ...
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News
Bar regulator proposes relaxing limits on barristers’ role
The Bar Standards Board has set out its stall to become a ‘specialist regulator’ for those providing advocacy and related services – and proposes allowing barristers to carry out work currently performed by solicitors. In a consultation published today, the bar’s regulator proposes that barristers should ...
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News
LSC puts its case in family judicial review
On the second day of the Law Society’s judicial review of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for family legal aid work, counsel for the LSC today told the High Court that it should have been ‘obvious’ to solicitors that panel membership was going to be an important factor in the ...
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News
Fall in cases handled by magistrates
The number of cases handled by magistrates has fallen by 16% in a decade as more defendants are dealt with out of court, according to a report published this week. The report for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies shows that around 1.64 million cases ...
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News
Legal brand to launch national franchise
A new legal brand run by a solicitor is to launch as a national franchise next April, the Gazette can exclusively reveal. HighStreetLawyer.com aims to establish a recognisable law firm brand in a bid to compete with new market entrants when alternative business structures are sanctioned ...
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News
The CPS may find it hard to raise its game as budget cuts bite
Keir Starmer QC, director of public prosecutions, and his Crown Prosecution Service colleagues hosted a media drinks party last week to demonstrate their enthusiasm for transparency and to show off their new Southwark, London HQ. But subsequent press headlines will have punctured the party mood.
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News
Forty-year bar boom set to end
The number of barristers could be set to fall after 40 years of continuous growth, according to a report published last week. The report by consultants Jomati predicts that a drop in the number of law firms, coupled with more work done by solicitor-advocates, particularly ...
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News
‘Vicious circle’ in legal aid highlighted by thinktank
A legal thinktank calls on the government to adopt a more balanced approach to legal reform in a paper published today, and suggests that the large number of legal aid firms does not achieve best value for money. The Legal Services Institute (LSI) said the legal ...
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News
Law Society puts legal aid tender case to the High Court
The Law Society warned that the Legal Services Commission’s family tender process will restrict access to justice for victims of domestic abuse, forced marriage and children, as its judicial review of the tender process began in the High Court today. Outlining the Law Society’s case ...
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News
Mental health tender criteria ‘discriminate against smaller firms’
A London firm is poised to challenge the Legal Services Commission’s mental health tender process by claiming that it discriminates against smaller firms, as the Law Society’s action over the family contract commences in the Divisional Court today. The firm, which did not want to be ...