Last 3 months headlines – Page 1271
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Does the legal profession need to have minimum trainee rates?
To paraphrase the author John O’Farrell, those in charge of society have always shown imagination in thinking of reasons why relatively poor people should work harder for less. So there is neat symmetry in the SRA’s decision to flag the likely abolition of the minimum trainee salary in the same ...
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Young at heart
Obiter was pleased to see that an old friend, Andrew, Lord Phillips of Sudbury to the rest of you, is among the Liberal Democrat peers willing to give the coalition a bloody nose over its legal aid reforms. The former Bates Wells & ...
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Right stipes
A London stipe once said to me that, after his appointment, the first five years were learning, the second five were interesting and the remaining 10 were waiting for his pension. Certainly, some of them played with lawyers they knew to keep themselves amused. One said to me when I ...
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Environment
Electricity - Supply - Feed-in tariff R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change; R (on the application of Homesun Holdings Ltd) v Secretary of State for Energy ...
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The Stop Delaying Justice! initiative
Stop Delaying Justice! is coming into practice in magistrates’ courts across England and Wales this month. This is an initiative led by the judiciary in the magistrates’ courts, with judges and magistrates working together. The intention is that contested trials will be fully case-managed at the first hearing and take ...
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HSBC's 43-strong conveyancing panel sets alarming precedent
by Jonathan Smithers, chair of the Law Society Conveyancing and Land Law Committee HSBC’s decision to create an unusually small mortgage lender panel of just 43 to serve the whole of the UK raises deep concerns for conveyancing solicitors and a wider issue for the public, ...
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Local authority
Library - Public library - Duty of library authority R (on the application of Bailey and others) v Brent London Borough Council: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Pill, Richards and Davis): 19 December 2011 ...
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Bar applications up 18%
Applications for the Bar Professional Training Course have risen despite the continued fall in the number of pupillages, the bar’s annual report to the profession reveals. The annual Bar Barometer report, prepared by Dr Jennifer Sauboorah for the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board, shows there ...
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Mediation, unreasonable behaviour and costs
Mediation as an effective dispute resolution method for civil disputes is well established. Therefore it was not surprising that Lord Justice Jackson reinforced the important role of mediation in chapter 36 of his Review of Civil Litigation Costs Final Report: ‘The most important form of ADR… is mediation. The reason ...
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The usual suspects? (Victim of crime - part 2)
It had taken three months and 11 days to get there - a room in a police station looking at individual mugshots of nine villainous-looking young men on a flat screen computer. It was Friday 13 January 2012 and the moment of truth was upon us. ...
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CPS unveils smaller legal panel
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today announced the appointments to its new, smaller, advocacy panel. Following an application process that began in March 2011, 2,582 advocates, the vast majority of who are barristers but with around 20 solicitor advocates, have been appointed. From 1 February all ...
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Employment
Contract of service - Church - Claimant being minister of Methodist church Preston v President of the Methodist Church: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Maurice Kay (vice-president), Longmore and Sir David Keene): 20 December 2011 ...
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Competition
Merger - Substantial lessening of competition Claimant airline seeking to purchase 30% share in second respondent airline Ryanair Holdings plc v Office of Fair Trading and another: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Lloyd, Elias and Kitchin): 21 December 2011 ...
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MoJ still spending on consultants
The Ministry of Justice has defended its outlay on consultants after spending more than £43m on external experts since May 2010. A written question in the House of Commons discovered that net spend since the coalition government took power was an average of £2.28m a month. ...
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Joint enterprise law ‘unacceptable’, says justice committee
MPs have called for ‘immediate steps’ to reform the ‘complex’ and ‘confusing’ law on joint enterprise. The cross party Justice Committee says the doctrine is being applied ‘inconsistently’ and that legislation is needed to ensure justice for victims and defendants and to cut the high number ...
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Health and safety guru warns of political misuse
The architect of the government’s health and safety strategy has raised concerns that his report could be ‘misused’ for political purposes.