Last 3 months headlines – Page 1090
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 22 June 1988Sex discrimination should not be a disciplinary offence, says YSG Recent recommendations by a special Law Society working party that discrimination against women solicitors should be made a disciplinary offence and tax relief should be available for child care expenses, have been rejected by ...
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Clegg fuels rumours of cabinet split over legal aid
Signs of a cabinet split over the government’s legal aid proposals have emerged after the deputy prime minister voiced concern over the removal of client choice and the attorney general appeared to endorse barristers’ concerns that the changes would ‘damage the justice system’. The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday that ...
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Case management conferences – your war stories, please
A couple of months on from the Jackson start date, and life may not feel that different for litigators – just yet. But have you had your first post-Jackson case management conference?
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Trademarks in toys and games – part two
A recent High Court judgment concerning the Scrabble ‘tile’ trademark highlights the tension between trademarks and the functional elements of toys and games. Below is part two of a two-part summary of a few key decisions in this area; claims with varying degrees of success. Part one was published on ...
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Defamation on social media
On 24 May Mr Justice Tugendhat handed down the judgment in McAlpine v Bercow [2013] EWHC 1342 (QB), finding that Mrs Bercow’s tweet carried a defamatory meaning. Following the judgment it was announced that Bercow had accepted an earlier settlement offer, saying that ‘today’s ruling should be seen as a ...
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Plans underline PCT failings
One of the main planks of the profession’s – sorry, ‘industry’s’ – opposition to price-competitive tendering is that, if implemented, ‘if you are accused of a crime, you will have to take the solicitor allocated to you’. This is the position already.
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Don’t access all areas
It is clear that fraud on the Land Registry is increasing and takes various forms. Recently, there were pictures in the newspapers of an incident in a London street. The number plates on cars in the pictures were pixellated. Fair enough, I thought, given that the number plate might be ...
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Chris Grayling: divide and rule
I read in the Gazette of 10 June that Grayling believes there is a straight choice between saving £220m from either criminal legal aid (budget £1bn) or the NHS (budget £109bn). This is classic divide-and-rule stuff that will not fool either lobby. But even on this faulty logic, he should ...
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Shortcomings of mediation
Mediation is ‘flavour of the month’ and doubtless there is a lot to be said for it in reducing the costs of civil litigation. I was involved in mediation recently in a consumer claim, and cannot say that the process did more than delay the listing of the case and ...
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PI claims barrier
I refer to Rob Barley’s letter and my comment is that you ‘don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater’. The incident Mr Barley refers to is utterly inexcusable. As a claimant PI lawyer of getting on for 35 years’ standing, I probably feel even ...
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You can help shape improvements to legal regulation
by Helen Grant, justice minister Anyone who has worked in the legal industry will know what a nightmare the sector’s regulatory set-up can be.
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Freedom of information: limits of privilege
One of the key recommendations of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee in its July 2012 report on the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) was the introduction of a new exemption for academic research. The government accepted this recommendation in its official response late last year.
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The EU endorses freedoms but it wants to know what people will do with them
The political orthodoxy that markets provide the best solutions has been surprisingly resilient. In reality the government and the EU have a difficult relationship with market freedoms. They endorse freedoms, with the caveat that they would like to know exactly what people do with them. ...
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Hudson questions SRA’s firm finances disclosure
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has questioned the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s decision to disclose that 30 leading firms are in serious financial trouble. At the SRA board last week, it emerged that 20% of the 160 firms in ‘intensive engagement’ talks about their finances rank ...
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SRA ‘wrong to pursue costs via conduct rules’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority was wrong to use professional conduct rules to pursue a former practitioner for costs, a tribunal has found. David Bellchamber had been ordered to pay fixed costs adding up to £850 in connection with a 2011 tribunal rebuke and subsequent unsuccessful appeal. ...
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Jackson prompts spurt in law firm start-ups
More firms opened in the month after the Jackson reforms came into force than at any point for almost two years. According to figures published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 138 firms opened in April – 39% more than in April 2012 and a 77% increase ...
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Legal aid cuts ‘end high-profile BME cases’
High-profile cases such as those of murder victims Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbié would not have been taken up by lawyers if the government’s legal aid cuts had been in place, a prominent solicitor-advocate has warned. Imran Khan, partner at London firm Imran Khan & ...
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Carbon footprint down 7% in legal sector
The Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and 57 law firms have reduced their per-head carbon emissions by nearly 7% since 2010, according to the sector’s annual environmental statement. The fall from 3.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010 to 3.63 tonnes of CO2e ...
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Mystery surrounds legal training report
The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) report remains under wraps as the profession’s regulators, now in possession of the completed document, continue to cite ‘commercial confidentiality’ for withholding its disclosure.
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Family lawyers divided over Prest decision
The Supreme Court’s decision to order an oil tycoon to hand over assets held by his companies to his former wife has been hailed as a victory for fairness and justice by lawyers. But family practitioners are divided on the implications of last week’s judgment in ...