All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 89
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News
Government abandons libel fee cut bid
The government this week ditched controversial plans to cap success fees paid to ‘no win, no fee’ lawyers in libel cases. Commons leader Harriet Harman said the legislation, which would have reduced the fees charged by lawyers who won defamation cases taken on under conditional ...
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Criminal defence firms fail to secure legal aid contracts beyond July 2010
Criminal solicitors have warned that a ‘cull’ of firms has begun after Legal Services Commission figures revealed that 5% of firms did not secure new contracts. The recent tender for criminal contracts ended with one in 20 firms failing to secure the right to do publicly ...
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News
Edwards Duthie wins contract for first London CLAC
East London firm Edwards Duthie has won the contract to run the capital’s first Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC). It will operate the service in Barking and Dagenham in conjunction with the local Citizens Advice Bureau. Over the next three years the ...
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Metropolitan Police revises document charges for civil cases
The Metropolitan Police Service has issued revised charges for providing copies of documentation in civil proceedings. The following most significant changes came into effect on 1 April: Charges for civil cases – statements and interviews ...
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MoJ announces changes to Crown court fees
The Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission have today announced the fee changes for Crown court legal aid work. The government has decided not to implement the 17.9% cut proposed to the advocates’ graduated fees. Instead there will be a staged reduction over three years ...
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Expansion of barristers’ role following relaxation of bar rules
The Legal Services Board has approved a relaxation in the bar rules that will allow barristers to take advantage of the Legal Services Act 2007. Following the LSB’s approval of the Bar Standards Boards’ applications to relax the bar’s Code of Conduct, barristers will now be ...
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News
Most asylum seekers wrongly denied funded representation
Nearly 80% of asylum seekers are being wrongly refused publicly funded legal representation, according to a study published today by Devon Law Centre. Since July 2007, the Devon centre has had referred to it 75 asylum cases that had been refused controlled legal representation on the ...
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News
Grieve slams Whitehall plans for reforming criminal legal aid market
The shadow justice secretary has dismissed the government’s proposals for reforming the criminal legal aid market as ‘pre-election posturing’. Dominic Grieve QC said the plans outlined last week by justice secretary Jack Straw were ‘woefully inadequate to tackle the deep problems in the way legal aid ...
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News
Bar offers legal aid ‘olive branch’ on criminal fee proposals
The Bar Council has offered the government an ‘olive branch’ to avoid judicial review proceedings if it withdraws the current criminal fee proposals and negotiates a way forward. In February, the Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association launched judicial review proceedings in relation to two consultations ...
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News
Whitehall to consult lawyers over move to cut fees in libel actions
The government has agreed to consult media lawyers on its controversial proposals to cut success fees in libel actions. In a House of Lords debate on a draft order that will reduce the success fees paid to lawyers who win defamation actions from 100% to 10% ...
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News
Judge rejects free access to property information
Local authorities are not obliged to provide free access to raw property information, the High Court has ruled. The decision follows a judicial review action by search company OneSearch Direct, challenging York City Council’s refusal to allow access to its property records so that it could ...
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News
Lawyers warning over family experts fee cuts
Slashing the fees of social work experts will put vulnerable children at risk and increase delays in the family court, their representative groups have warned. From October 2010, the Ministry of Justice will reduce by around 50% the fees paid to social workers who give independent ...
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News
New higher rights qualification approved
New regulations that provide a single route for solicitors to qualify to appear in the higher courts come into effect this week, on 1 April. The Ministry of Justice has approved the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new system, which will see one route to qualification through an ...
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News
The legal aid status quo could not continue
Since 2005 when the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, commissioned Lord Carter to undertake a review into the future procurement of legal aid, major change has been on the cards.
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Explosion in demand for paralegals, thinktank reveals
The number of paralegals has doubled in the last decade and is set to rise further, according to a report from government-sponsored thinktank the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The report, which explored the country’s present and future skills needs, disclosed that the number of ...
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News
VHCC panel for criminal work to be suspended
The Legal Services Commission has announced that the very high cost cases (VHCC) panel for criminal work will be suspended when the current contracts expire in July, because of a lack of time to run a new tendering exercise. From July 2010 the LSC said it ...
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News
Success fee cut in defamation cases delayed by former Commons speaker
Government plans to cut success fees for lawyers in defamation cases have been delayed by the former House of Commons speaker Lord Martin of Springburn (pictured). Martin has tabled a ‘motion of regret’ against the proposal to reduce from 100% to 10% the maximum uplift that ...
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News
Environmental search data breakthrough for conveyancing solicitors
Conveyancing solicitors could get free access to more environmental search information from local authorities following an Information Tribunal ruling. In a case concerning East Riding of Yorkshire, the tribunal ruled that the local authority should have allowed a representative from a private search company to inspect ...
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News
Lord Neuberger calls for single appeals tribunal
The master of the rolls has recommended that a single body should be responsible for hearing appeals brought by lawyers or legal businesses found to have breached licensing and ownership rules. Lord Neuberger said it is essential that common standards are applicable across the profession.
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News
Purge of criminal legal aid firms planned
Up to 75% of criminal legal aid firms will be removed from the market under far-reaching provider reforms set to be implemented from next summer. The plans, announced by the Ministry of Justice this week, envisage a consolidated market in which contracts for larger volumes of ...