Last 3 months headlines – Page 1108
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Costs precedent
Judgment in the conjoined appeals of Gavin Flatman v Gill Germany and Richard Weddall v Barchester Health Care Ltd was handed down last month [2013] EWCA Civ 278. The decision was an important one in view of the new funding and costs regime that exists following the implementation of the ...
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High Court throws out JR on ‘easyCouncil’
A London council is to proceed with the outsourcing of regulatory services such as building control and land charges after fighting off a High Court challenge. The court today dismissed an application for a judicial review against the London borough of Barnet’s programme to outsource a wide range of services ...
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‘Mayhem’ threat as Wales votes against QASA
Lawyers could cause ‘mayhem’ to the criminal justice system in protest over the government’s legal aid reforms, the leader of the Wales and Chester circuit has warned after barristers in Wales voted unanimously to boycott the controversial quality assessment scheme. Speaking to the Gazette today, Gregory ...
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Solicitors must engage with PCT consultation
by Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society The current consultation on changes to criminal legal aid - the proposed introduction of price-competitive tendering - casts a dark shadow over the future of hundreds of solicitors and their firms.
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SRA sleuths uncover email excuses
Obiter is no stranger to unwanted emails. Every day we get a barrage of useless notifications, updates and newsletters (not counting the Gazette’s daily update, of course). But you might have thought that a practising law firm would open emails with ‘SRA Compliance’ in the sender ...
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Facts speak louder than words
Always alert to linguistic trends, Obiter has noted a new euphemism being applied to what Private Eye used to call ‘Ugandan discussions’. It originates in a letter by Lord Justice Leveson dismissing any suggestion of impropriety resulting from the relationship after his inquiry into the press between the inquiry’s second ...
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Model of a modern secretary general
You may wonder what the secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) does all day. This is a proper question, since solicitors contribute to my pay. So here goes, with all events taken from last week. If you want to see how I am ...
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What a way to make a living
Estella Brown of Middlesex firm Goodwins family law has obviously been working 9 to 5 on the potential for appropriate legal mergers. How about the Law Offices of Kevin J. Dolley LLC in St Louis, US, with Jackson Parton Solicitors from London, to make Dolley Parton? Any more marriages made ...
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The Tyco-Eversheds deal – from whiteboard to renewal
News broke late last week that Tyco is extending the 2006 deal it signed with Eversheds, whereby the firm provides the company’s legal needs for a fixed price – in return for sole-provider status for huge swathes of Tyco’s external legal needs.
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Saatchi promises safeguards in negligence immunity bill
Advertising magnate Lord Saatchi will today outline how he intends to protect doctors from negligence claims if they innovate in the treatment of cancer patients. In a speech to the Royal Society of Medicine, Saatchi will explain how doctors can be encouraged to innovate without being ...
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Tiny misunderstanding
Just when you think the legal profession has finally got its collective head around this internet thingie, there comes a knock-back. A colleague called the Gazette newsdesk the other day to grumble about alleged bias in the selection of readers’ comments for printing on our weekly Feedback pages. ...
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Grayling’s prison clampdown is a smokescreen, says association chair
Reforms to prison privileges announced by the justice secretary today have been condemned as ‘cheap shots’ to ‘whip up prejudice’ and create a ‘smokescreen’ to detract from legal aid cuts. The chair of the Association of Prison Lawyers, Andrew Sperling, questioned why Chris Grayling had decided ...
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Lord Judge and eternal vigilance
When you are lord chief justice a spot of self-deprecation tends to go unnoticed. After all, you’ve reached the top of the tree, have an unimpeachable track record and everybody hangs on your every word. Nobody’s going to take seriously your claim that you have made the most stupid observation ...
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The case for the defence
Law-makers have been thinking about abolishing the marital coercion defence since the early 1920s, so suggestions that it will be abolished in some imminent legislation cannot be said to be a knee-jerk reaction to the Vicky Pryce case.
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Small-claims threshold decision in autumn, Grant says
A government decision on the limit of the size of claims handled by the small-claims court will not be made until the autumn, justice minister Helen Grant revealed today. Grant (pictured) said the Ministry of Justice’s response to a public consultation, which closed in March, is ...
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Massive rise in cross-border family disputes
The number of cross-border family legal disputes referred to a UK judge has grown tenfold in a decade and more than doubled in the past two years, according to an organisation set up to facilitate transnational judicial collaboration. The annual report of the Office of the ...
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Society endorses ‘a la carte’ advice – but warns of risks
Family lawyers offering ‘pay as you go’ legal services are warned of the risks they carry and how to avoid them in a practice note published today by the Law Society. The note has been published to assist solicitors seeking to offer a more affordable service ...
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Society urges super-regulator to delay advocacy scheme
The Law Society’s chief executive has urged super-regulator the Legal Services Board to delay implementation of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), in recognition of the ‘profound shifts and uncertainties’ afflicting criminal practitioners. Within a year the scheme may be ‘meaningless’ to many firms ...
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Stobart to bid for new legal aid contracts
Stobart Group is likely to bid for a contract if the government goes ahead with plans for price-competitive tendering for criminal legal aid, the business confirmed today. Trevor Howarth, group legal director for Stobart Barristers, said the fixed-fee service had been created with changes to ...