Last 3 months headlines – Page 1226
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SRA in new compliance deadline setback
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to push back the date for approving compliance officers by two months. The SRA Board will vote tomorrow on extending the grace period for approving the new appointments to 31 December. As recently as last weekend, SRA chief executive Antony ...
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Members of the legal profession should support Occupy
by Melanie Strickland, a solicitor and Occupy Law UK We are all aware that our economic system brings misery, exploitation and death to a large number of people and other living beings.
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Complying with AML rules ‘upholds the profession’, symposium told
Transactional lawyers were reminded of the importance of complying with anti-money laundering regulations in order to ‘uphold the profession’.
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Pecking at lawyers
Displacement activity takes place when animals or humans are faced with a crisis and don’t know how to react. Apparently, birds peck at grass when uncertain whether to attack or flee from an opponent. So it is with governments, too. Confronted by an unprecedented crisis, they haven’t a clue what ...
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Fees on way back down to earth
Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers’ annual conference last week, the master of the rolls Lord Neuberger expressed great confidence that a combination of the Jackson reforms, alternative business structures and client demand for fixed fees will mean that lawyer’s fees are almost certain to come down.
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HSBC campaign targets bank’s AGM
Solicitors with HSBC shares have indicated that they will attend the bank’s annual general meeting next week to voice concerns over its conveyancing panel policy. The Law Society has set up an email address for solicitors considering attending so that they can be kept up to date with the Society’s ...
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Prepare for 50% fee cuts, says ‘end of lawyers’ professor
Rapid change in the legal profession threatens everyone from in-house lawyers to large City firms, according to IT consultant Professor Richard Susskind. The former IT adviser to the lord chief justice told the Law Society Management Conference last week that the economic climate will force clients to seek out these ...
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Justice and Security Bill faces a rough ride
The Justice & Security Bill is to allow the courts, through the ‘limited use of closed proceedings’, to consider all material relating to a case without needing to disclose information that could risk national security. The government says its purpose is to ‘respond to the challenge ...
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Serwotka threatens more disruption after ‘brilliant’ court strike
A union leader has threatened a further strike next month after industrial action by court workers across the country. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said yesterday’s one-day strike had received ‘brilliant support’ from members working in the courts service. The ...
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LSB chair brushes aside critics in robust defence of liberalisation
The chair of the Legal Services Board yesterday rebutted allegations that the quango is overreaching itself by seeking to 'micro-manage’ professional regulation. 'People and glasshouses spring to mind,’ David Edmonds (pictured) told a seminar on regulation at the Royal Festival Hall organised by Russell-Cooke and chaired ...
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Should solicitors help draw legal aid red lines?
How far should solicitors go to help the government formulate its criminal justice spending plans and what are the red lines that cannot be crossed when it comes to cuts? These were the questions underlying a thought-provoking speech given by the Law Society’s head of legal ...
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My first jumbo
I was reading one of those booklets that get sent out by indemnity insurers to remind us how to avoid claims. Most of them are very good. They are readable and clear and will not give you too many nightmares. No one likes waking up in the middle of court ...
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Future is fixed billing - Neuberger
Master of the rolls Lord Neuberger has warned that alternative business structures may sound the ‘death knell’ for hourly billing. Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers conference today, Neuberger said clients were increasingly put off by hourly billing and attracted by fixed fees. As well ...
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Twitter twits
Just why don’t lawyers get Twitter? This is a website with more than 300 million registered users worldwide, a figure that is growing all the time. It has extraordinary reach, allowing members to spread their own message or listen into what others are saying. It is, ...
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Apprenticeship scheme for legal services
The first legal services apprenticeships are to be made available from next year to employers seeking skilled paralegal and other legal support staff. The London Apprenticeship Company (LAC) announced today that it had teamed up with charity Skills for Justice to place young people into apprenticeships ...
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Beneath the hysteria over whiplash lies an injured man
Let’s call him Bob. Bob is 43, has 2.5 kids and works as a self-employed painter and decorator. Bob is involved in a car accident, and although initially he was a bit stiff he wakes the next morning to find that he really is, actually, injured. ...
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Proceeds of crime
Sentence - Confiscation order R v Bagnall and another: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Moses, Mrs Justice Macur and Mrs Justice Sharp): 18 April 2012 The Court of ...
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Benefit claims
This article was prompted by the case of Coventry City Council v Vassel [2011] EWHC 1542 Admin. It explores some of the technicalities that arise in connection with section 112 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 as amended: ‘Failure to notify a change in circumstances.’ In particular, it looks ...
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Living life on the edge
I read with interest your feature ‘Time out’. As a solicitor who failed to achieve a work/life balance, I hope that my experience may be a lesson to others. I was a partner in a small firm for 23 years. For 21 of those years, I was a full-time working ...
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Competitive instinct
It was gratifying to read about the final of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting’s annual mooting competition, held at the Law Society.