Last 3 months headlines – Page 1162
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Hodge holds fire on ‘tax avoidance by lawyers’
The Commons public spending watchdog has no plans to call lawyers before its headline-grabbing inquiry into tax avoidance – at least before the summer recess. The public accounts committee, chaired by Margaret Hodge MP, has lacerated representatives from the Big Four accounting firms at recent hearings, ...
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Chancery Lane calls for 28-day police bail limit
The Law Society has called for a statutory 28-day limit on the amount of time suspects are kept on police bail. Over 57,000 people are on police bail in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to figures obtained by the BBC. ...
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Slaughter: further court closures will bring ‘chaos’
Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter has warned the government that a further round of court closures would be ‘reckless and chaotic’. Speculation is growing that the Ministry of Justice will soon announce at least 80 further court closures – mainly magistrates’ courts – to add to ...
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Claims against the NHS set to surge
Clinical negligence cases against the NHS increased by 18% in 2012/13, government figures have revealed. Statistics compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions found there were 16,006 cases registered with the compensation recovery unit last year, compared with 13,517 for 2011/12. ...
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No law recruits for college
The National College of Legal Training (NCLT) has blamed ‘poor market conditions’ and a slump in student numbers for its decision not to recruit for its Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Graduate Diploma in Law for 2013/14. However, the universities of Derby and the West ...
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Mental health therapy is part of the support from a growing number of law firms
The legal profession is not alone in dealing imperfectly with the mental health of its members. As comedian and writer Ruby Wax (pictured) noted, speaking at Herbert Smith Freehills last week to mark mental health awareness month, depression carries a stigma that can lose someone a job. In law it ...
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Legal firms struggling with new pensions scheme
A third of law firms are unsure how to handle the ‘tricky issues’ of compliance and administration surrounding auto-enrolment, the government scheme requiring employers to move workers into a pension plan, according to a survey. Failure to introduce a compliant scheme by your staging date ...
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Courts: going private is no panacea
by Francesca Kaye, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association The government is right to be thorough in its determination to cut waste and excess in public services, and achieve greater efficiency, particularly in the current economic climate. However, the news that this quest may lead ...
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Blair's lord chancellor reforms ruining constitution
In his admirably lucid and revelatory account of the removal of Lord Irvine from the office of lord chancellor, and the destruction of the office itself, by his ungrateful pupil Tony Blair, Joshua Rozenberg has pinpointed a key moment in our recent legal history.
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Cocts management: unintended consequences
Recent changes to the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2013 are affecting the way solicitors and litigants approach cases concerning the management of costs. The recent changes include the small claims track limit being increased from claims valued up to £5,000 to claims valued up to ...
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Grayling’s legal aid ignorance
Now the cat is out of the bag. Chris Grayling told Catherine Baksi in her interview with him: ‘I don’t believe that most people who find themselves in our criminal justice system are great connoisseurs of legal skills…’
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Civil legal aid: an attack on those in need
There is a risk that the bad news about the impact of the Transforming Legal Aid proposals on civil legal aid will be buried by criminal practitioners’ (justified) outrage about compulsory competitive tendering. Under the civil proposals, those unable to prove 12 months’ lawful residence ...
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Money laundering still dogs us
There is plenty of backstage manoeuvring in the development of legal policy. Often the most interesting work cannot be written about, to protect the confidentiality of our members’ views or our interaction with outside bodies. At the same time, I think: ‘But the wider legal profession should know about this!’
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Legal aid: the right to choose
There is an aspect of the current criminal legal aid proposals that ought to be brought to general attention. The proposal to deny the right of choice of lawyer runs contrary to government policy. On 29 March 2012 the prime minister announced that he intended ...
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Spelling bee
It was with interest that I noted Obiter’s recent nod to a syntax error on the website of Dynamo Legal (dynamolegal.com), the so-called ‘superbrand’ headed by Alex Mills of BBC’s The Apprentice ‘fame’. Perhaps the young Mr Mills can be excused for the odd gremlin ...
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Wax works to tame depression
To Herbert Smith Freehills on London’s Exchange Square, where comedian Ruby Wax (pictured) added some showbiz glamour to a relaunch of the firm’s mental health programme. Wax, who publishes a book on ‘mindfulness’ this summer (Sane New World: How to Tame the Mind), mixed candour with humour as she spoke ...
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Best go to Tesco? Er, no
Legal aid lawyers have a belligerent ally in the Guardian’s star columnist Zoe Williams, who directed a withering broadside at the government’s PCT plans last Saturday. Still, quite a few solicitors will have choked on their morning croissant at her revelation that Tesco plans to bid for a contract. Maybe ...
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Commercial courts (that’s all of them)
The Gazette lays claim to this week’s Mystic Meg award for idle speculation that turned out to be not as idle as a reader might have supposed. An editor’s blog last month fingered HM Courts & Tribunals Service as ripe for privatisation, what with its (largely) ramshackle estate, odd plum ...
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When science doesn’t have the answer
The sad story of the couple found dead in the swimming pool reminded me of one case which forensic science failed to solve. This concerned New Zealand-born Rhodes scholar and scientist Gilbert Stanley Bogle, who was found dead along with his companion, Margaret Chandler, at ...
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Panel firms named as claims against NHS soar
The Department of Health has announced its roster of defendant panel firms that will share a £400m contract for the NHS in England over the next four years. After a tender process lasting several months, successful bidders were informed this morning. ...