All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 80
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News
Recession fuels ADR rise
The financial crisis triggered a surge in the number of disputes resolved by arbitration and mediation, with the UK performing well as a venue for hearing international cases, a study published this week found. The study, by membership body TheCityUK, discloses that the number of arbitrations ...
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News
Financial crisis sees dispute resolution surge
The financial crisis has seen a surge in dispute resolution cases, with the UK performing well as a venue for hearing international disputes, according to a report published today. The report Dispute Resolution in London & the UK, compiled by membership body TheCityUK, shows the number ...
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News
Solicitors queue up to sue LSC
Pressure is mounting on the Legal Services Commission over its handling of the tender for civil legal aid contracts, as it faces a growing number of judicial review challenges to the process, and talks with the Law Society broke down.
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News
Solicitor charged with theft
A Lincolnshire solicitor has been charged with stealing over a quarter of a million pounds from her former clients. Jacquelina Laverick, who practised under the name Jacqui Johns, appeared at Grantham Magistrates’ Court last week charged with 11 offences of theft totalling more than £250,000, and ...
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The changing relationship between solicitors and barristers
In the debate about how the legal regulators should amend practising rules to allow solicitors and barristers to operate in the new structures modelled in the Legal Services Act 2007, some predicted that the reforms could alter forever the identity of lawyers and lead to fusion – ending the distinction ...
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MoJ consults on bribery prevention procedures
The Ministry of Justice has published draft guidance to companies on procedures to prevent bribery. The guidance is published under section 9 of the Bribery Act, which is due to come into force next April. The Bribery Act creates a new corporate offence of failure to ...
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News
Young legal aid lawyers call for quality
The Young Legal Aid Lawyers group has called on the government to put quality of service at the heart of any new legal aid scheme to safeguard the rule of law. In a briefing paper to the Ministry of Justice, which is carrying out a review ...
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Tributes paid following death of Lord Bingham
Tributes have been paid to Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the former lord chief justice and one of the pre-eminent judges of his generation, following his death on Saturday. He had been suffering from cancer and died at his home in Wales aged 76. ...
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LSC extends family contracts pending judicial review hearing
The Legal Services Commission has confirmed that all current civil contracts will be extended for one month, after the Law Society won an expedited hearing of its judicial review last week. At a directions hearing last Friday, the High Court granted the Law Society’s application for ...
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LSC reverses contract decision following judge's warning
The Legal Services Commission has averted one legal challenge to its tender process by awarding a social welfare contract to a Birmingham firm which sought a judicial review of the LSC’s initial decision not to make an award.
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News
Manchester CLAS will ‘eclipse’ small practices
The Law Society has warned that Manchester’s new community legal advice service (CLAS) will drive small legal aid firms out of the market, and make conflicts of interest hard to avoid. Following a tender process that overran by nearly two months, the Legal Services Commission and ...
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News
Scholarship to study law in France, Spain or Canada
Trainee and newly qualified solicitors have been given the chance to apply for a grant to study a postgraduate legal course in France, Spain or Canada. The Hubbard scholarship of up to £15,000 is available to trainees or newly qualified solicitors within three years of admission. ...
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News
Solicitors under fire from bar over referral fees
The new Criminal Bar Association chair has criticised solicitors for ‘abusing’ the referral fee arrangements for Crown court advocacy, claiming that solicitors are pocketing money for work done by barristers. In his first interview as CBA chair, Christopher Kinch QC told the Gazette: ‘The criminal bar ...
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News
Firm claims sex discrimination in legal aid tender
A London firm has claimed sex discrimination in judicial review proceedings challenging the Legal Services Commission’s refusal to award it immigration and community care contracts. Hereward & Foster issued proceedings in the Administrative Court on 7 September and has requested an expedited hearing. ...
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News
SRA pays out over £9m to former clients of Wolstenholmes
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far paid out more than £9m to former clients of Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes. The SRA closed down the firm, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, last year, on the grounds of suspected dishonesty and breaches of the solicitors’ accountancy ...
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News
Pro bono panel for 2012 Olympics
The Law Society and Bar Council are to establish a joint pro bono panel of advisers for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Although City firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the official legal adviser to the London Olympics, the games’ organising committee has asked the two representative ...
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News
What about firms that can’t afford to promote social mobility?
Accustomed as I am to receiving gloomy news about legal aid and vulnerable people being denied access to justice, a press release heralding a rare piece of good news brightened my inbox this week.
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News
LSC extends family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review at a hearing last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, ...
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News
LSC extends family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, the court granted ...
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News
Barristers offer ‘lifeline’ to criminal solicitors
Barristers’ chambers could provide a ‘lifeline’ to small criminal law firms, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC has told the Gazette. ...