All articles by John Hyde – Page 341
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News
SRA sets back compliance officer deadline
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has postponed the date for firms to nominate compliance officers after another technological delay. The new deadline has not yet been announced. Firms had been expected to put forward two staff members by the end of this month, but with the online ...
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News
More time for LDPs to mull ABS options
Hundreds of legal disciplinary practices (LDPs) have been given more time to decide how to approach the new era of legal services regulation. Under the terms of the 2007 Legal Services Act, some 250 LDPs in England and Wales with non-lawyer managers must decide whether ...
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How long can the USA hold off ABSs?
With David Cameron and Barack Obama currently cementing their special relationship, the focus is very much on the links that bind the UK and US.
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CFA reform will not be retrospective, MoJ says
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today sought to quell fears that Jackson reforms would be applied retrospectively to cases launched before April 2013. Changes to civil litigation are set to be implemented next year once the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill has been ...
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Federal court strikes down attempt to overturn ownership rule
A New York personal injury firm has failed in its attempt to overrule the state’s ban on non-lawyer ownership.
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Concern at move to make success fee recovery ban retrospective
Alarm has been raised at a move by the government that appears to give the Jackson reforms retrospective effect. Radical changes to the no win, no fee system are due to come into force in April 2013 as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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News
Survey shows top 100 fee income up by 7.2%
Firms just outside the top 25 are prospering more than anyone as fee income continues to rise across the upper echelons of the legal market. The latest quarterly survey by Deloitte of the legal service market - covering the third quarter of 2011/12 - found strongest ...
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News
Labour peers seek to halve portal fees
Labour peers have tabled proposals in the Lords to halve the fixed fees solicitors can claim from the low-value RTA Portal. Lord Beecham and Lord Bach (pictured) put down amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill for debate on Monday. The changes ...
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News
Educate, don’t mandate: Jackson on mediation
Lord Justice Jackson has called for a ‘serious campaign’ to teach lawyers and judges the benefits of mediation to settle disputes. The architect of the civil litigation reforms told a conference today that he is still a keen advocate of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as a ...
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News
Thousands miss PC renewal deadline
Thousands of solicitors appear to have failed to apply in time for practising certificates this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed. The deadline for applications, extended because of difficulties with the mySRA online application system, passed last Friday.
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‘Vigorously’ defend cases after reforms, Djanogly tells insurers
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has told insurers he expects them to ‘vigorously defend’ cases after civil litigation reforms are enacted. Djanogly told an insurance industry conference last week that civil justice reforms will provide a more level playing field between claimants and defendants. ...
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News
Liverpool Victoria wins bogus accident case
A leading insurer has secured the first known successful prosecution of a claimant who completely fabricated a car accident. Liverpool Victoria, which uses the trademark LV=, brought contempt proceedings against individuals who had reported a crash in Birmingham in 2008 and failed to attend court ...
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News
Ombudsman stance plays into hands of the Co-op
If I had a pound for every client/customer debate I’d heard, I’d probably have… £10 or so. Most of the time, I retreat before the argument gets going, ignoring this irrelevant and diversionary issue. Frankly, it matters not what the bill payer is called, just that ...
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News
Fee structure frozen to 2013
Regulators today confirmed they will not change next year’s fee structure for solicitors. However the actual level of fees will not be set until later this year. The existing settings for practising fees were set at a board meeting of the Solicitors Regulation Authority last ...
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News
SRA seeks online feedback
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has promised a ‘comprehensive review’ of problems encountered in its first year of online renewals.
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News
Treat clients as customers or you’re doomed, says Ombudsman
Law firms will not survive if they continue to resist consumer demands for fairer pricing, the Legal Ombudsman has warned. A report published today states that up to a quarter of the 90,000 annual complaints relate to costs, where a client has felt overcharged, confused or been surprised at the ...
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News
LSB ponders making immigration advice a reserved activity
Regulators have ‘inadequate understanding’ of the immigration advice market and don’t know if lawyers provide a good service, according to a review by the Legal Services Board (LSB). A discussion paper published by the LSB reveals that the authority is looking at whether immigration advice and ...
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News
Survey shows hundreds of code of conduct breaches
Regulators have discovered hundreds of potential breaches of the new code of conduct during visits to law firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority says it found a lack of understanding of the code during its survey of 200 firms carried out before the new code’s release in ...
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News
MoJ warned two years ago over interpreters
Ministry of Justice officials were warned two years ago that a central contract for courtroom interpreter services would lead to wrongful detentions, the Gazette has learned. Emails from a body representing interpreters also warned in 2010 that members would boycott the scheme. The MoJ and its ...
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Lost in translation
Perhaps Crispin Blunt MP spent the first two weeks of February on holiday on the moon. Maybe the justice minister was too busy perfecting that unnerving stare that gives him the air of a Stalinist henchman who’s been giving the task of breaking bad news to ...