Last 3 months headlines – Page 1128
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Bar calls on the LSB to tighten its belt
The Bar Council has publicly attacked the Legal Services Board for appearing immune from financial pressures affecting the legal profession and government departments. In a response to the LSB’s business plan for 2013/14, the bar body said it had concerns over the costs and scope of ...
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Minding your language
‘It is with great respect... It is with grave concern that we note... It is disappointing to say the least... With all due respect...’ What is it about our profession that practitioners feel the need to use these hackneyed and mostly meaningless phrases? I speak from the perspective of a ...
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Loos ruling conference
The Court of Justice of the European Union will be holding a day of reflection to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Van Gend en Loos judgment (delivered on 5 February 1963). During the event, to be held in Luxembourg on 13 May, the judgment will ...
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Grayling sets out payment-by-results vision
Payment by results will be the norm for government departments in the future, the justice secretary said today as he explained his ‘vision’ to reduce the ‘endless spiral of reoffending’. Speaking at a conference on rehabilitation, organised by the thinktank Policy Exchange, Chris Grayling said his ...
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Days of 100% damages payouts are over, says Hudson
Personal injury solicitors will have to ditch ‘100% compensation’ offers if they want to run a profitable business in future, the Law Society’s chief executive Desmond Hudson told members today. In an address to members, Hudson said he was ‘angry’ the government had ignored pleas not ...
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SRA joins attack on ‘poorly informed’ Legal Services Board
The Legal Services Board stands accused of partiality and incompetence in the latest attack from a regulator.
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Santander sets conveyancing panel deadline
Conveyancing firms that have not applied for the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) by 28 March will be removed from Santander’s panel, the bank has confirmed. In September last year, the bank announced that existing, as well as new, firms on its residential conveyancing panel ...
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Grayling puts price tendering in the fast lane
Price-competitive tendering for criminal defence services will be introduced this autumn under accelerated plans revealed by the justice secretary this morning. In a written ministerial statement, Chris Grayling (pictured) announced an eight-week consultation on the plans will begin in April – but said that the tender ...
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Government sees off amendments on secret civil hearings
Government plans for secret courts were approved by a majority in the House of Commons on Monday evening, despite opposition from Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs and amendments tabled by the Labour frontbench. Labour and coalition rebels who had proposed putting in place further conditions to ...
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Chancery Lane bench mark
Employment tribunal chair Colin Goodyear welcomed prospective judges to an event in Birmingham last week held to promote the Law Society’s Solicitor Judge Division. Last year, Goodyear was widely reported in the press for ordering Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to award Stafford Hospital solicitor Kate ...
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Criminal defence tendering: a tipping point
In a surprise move, Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, has announced an accelerated timetable for the Ministry of Justice’s plans to introduce price-competitive tendering for criminal defence services. Having decimated civil legal aid and savaged the practice of personal injury lawyers, the ministry has now seemingly ...
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Society warns LSB against diversity surveys
The Law Society has joined a wave of criticism of the Legal Services Board (LSB) by repeating its opposition to the publication of the results of mandatory diversity surveys of firms. In its response to the LSB’s draft business plan for 2013-14, the Society accuses the ...
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Admiral still cashing in on PI referral fees
Admiral, one of the UK’s leading car insurers, last year made £6 on every vehicle it insures through personal injury referral fees. The company revealed in its financial statement for the 2012 calendar year that it earned £18.6m from selling customers’ details to personal injury lawyers. ...
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MPs announce new whiplash probe
An inquiry into whiplash claims led by the House of Commons transport select committee will begin later this year, the committee’s chair has revealed. Louise Ellman MP said the study would focus on how to cut the number of fraudulent claims and make sure victims of ...
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Scottish firm fails
Scottish commercial firm Semple Fraser has announced it intends to appoint administrators. In a statement released today, the firm said it had been ‘severely affected’ by the downturn and contraction in parts of the corporate, property and construction sectors. It added that ...
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Strictly for solicitors (and barristers)
Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood (don’t pretend you haven’t heard of him) will be casting his trademark critical eye over the best rug-cutters in the legal world next month. He’ll be on the celebrity judging panel at Murder on the Dance Floor, an ...
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Getting into Cambridge
Here’s a nice statement of confidence in these difficult times. National law firm Mills & Reeve has moved into prestigious new headquarters in Cambridge, following the completion of a £2.45m office fit-out. Botanic House, a seven-storey office development, stands between the city’s historic core and the railway station.
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, March 1913Departmental Committee on Industrial Diseases A letter was read from the Home Office, enquiring whether the Council wished to give evidence before the Departmental Committee on the desirability or otherwise of including writer’s cramp as a qualification for compensation under the ...
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Civil litigation reform: lawlessness and rogue professionals
by Katy Manley, president of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association Lord Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, warned this week of the risk of lawlessness as a result of the government cuts in civil litigation funding being introduced in the Legal Aid Sentencing & Punishment of ...