Last 3 months headlines – Page 1216
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Law firms make gay-friendly top 100
Eight law firms feature in campaigning charity Stonewall’s list of the top-100 gay-friendly workplaces, published today. City firm Simmons & Simmons (pictured) leads the way, in ninth place. Baker & McKenzie is 19th, followed by Pinsent Masons, Herbert Smith Freehills and Hogan Lovells, which all have ...
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LSB backs call for simpler complaints regime
A call by the competition watchdog for simpler complaints procedures in the legal profession has received the support of the Legal Services Board. The Office of Fair Trading’s recommendation followed the publication of research today showing that only one in eight dissatisfied customers goes on ...
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Does competition law suit the NHS?
Competition law seems especially vulnerable to ‘the law of unintended consequences’ in the current environment. This can be seen in operation, some argue, by the 8 January referral by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) of a proposed merger between two NHS trusts (located in Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch) to ...
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Brilliant Law? It’s just a wolf in wolf’s clothing
I’ve never quite understood the antagonism towards foreign football club chairmen. Sure, we may question how the likes of Abramovich and Glazer acquired their money (or even if they have any at all), but to me there’s something deeper afoot. These people are foreign outsiders: they’re ...
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DWF expands national presence with new merger
In the latest sign of consolidation in the legal sector, business firm DWF today announced a merger with insurance firm Fishburns.
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Regulator ponders guillotine on PPI complaints
The Financial Services Authority has opened talks on introducing a time limit for payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints. In a statement released this afternoon, the FSA admitted there had been ‘initial discussions’ to consider the merits of a limit. The talks followed an approach by the ...
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Cherie Booth’s consultancy among latest ABS approvals
An international legal consultancy chaired by Cherie Booth QC and a franchise for individual lawyers are among a glut of new year alternative business structure (ABS) announcements. In the space of 24 hours, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed seven new ABSs to bring the total ...
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Nicklinson posthumous right-to-die appeal
A widow has been granted leave to continue her late husband’s challenge to the existing law on murder and assisted suicide. The Court of Appeal has made an order that Jane Nicklinson (pictured, left), as the administrator of her late husband Tony’s estate, may take forward ...
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Co-op fined for PPI complaints-handling
The Co-operative Bank has been fined £113,000 for failing to handle payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints fairly. The bank had put a ‘significant proportion’ of its 1,629 complaints on hold in 2011 whilst the British Bankers Association’s ultimately unsuccessful High Court challenge to new Financial Services ...
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Flexed ABS and flip-flops – my predictions for 2013
I’ll admit it’s been a slow start to 2013 here at Gazette Towers. So slow, in fact, that my ‘2013 predictions’ piece is now three days overdue. If I left it any later this piece would have to be a recap on the year so far. So my apologies for ...
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Society calls for freeze on civil justice reform
The government must postpone all further civil justice reforms until lawyers have had sufficient time to prepare for change, the Law Society said today. Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff welcomed justice secretary Chris Grayling’s decision to halt April’s expansion of the RTA Portal – confirmed over ...
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The gong show 2013
Twenty years after John Major sought to open up the honours system by introducing ‘people’s honours’, the twice-yearly hand-out of gongs is as predictable as ever. Look at the new year crop, especially when it comes to the legal world.
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Ombudsman sets out new fees plan
A tougher approach to ‘free’ investigations will allow the Legal Ombudsman to raise an extra £1.6m through case fees in 2013/14, the ombudsman’s office revealed today. In the coming financial year the ombudsman will charge firms for their first case rather than allow two free ...
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Judicial review: the wrong steps for the wrong reasons
by James Packer, a director at Duncan Lewis It is annoying for the government to be told that its actions are unlawful. It is embarrassing for the Home Office to have the disarray in the immigration system exposed in court.
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Minister signals weekend courts U-turn
The government has indicated that it will drop plans to open courts at weekends, instead introducing longer weekday sittings. It also plans to achieve ‘colossal savings’ by expanding the use of video links between courts, police stations and prisons, and to continue its restorative justice and ...
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11% of firms still lack compliance officers
Nominated staff at more than 8,800 firms this week took up their new roles as compliance officers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed that individuals at 89% of firms were approved to start work as watchdogs for legal practice, and finance and administration, known as COLPs and ...
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First day back
One morning during the holiday I popped into the office when the building was well and truly closed. The telephone was ringing and I answered it to give a mouthful to the caller about lawyers needing holidays as well, but it was only a person wishing the firm a happy ...
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RTA Portal: no plan B as government postpones expansion
The government has refused to reveal an alternative date for extending the RTA Portal scheme after announcing a postponement of its 1 April target today. As the Gazette reported before Christmas, the plan to extend the scheme to handle claims up to £25,000, as well ...
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Video to come to 13 more court areas in 2013
Video-link technology will be extended to more than a dozen court areas during the coming year, the justice minister announced today. Thirteen areas, including Avon and Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Devon and Cornwall, will start using live links in 2013 to allow police ...