Last 3 months headlines – Page 1297
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1966 and all that
Lord Collins of Mapesbury (Lawrence Collins) couldn’t be present to pick up his lifetime achievement award at last week’s Law Society Excellence Awards. Instead, he recorded an acceptance speech, Hollywood-style, that was broadcast at the event. In it he reminisced about a less frantic age ...
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Vos populi
Mr Justice Geoffrey Vos, former Bar Council chairman and one of the most esteemed lawyers of his generation, was in provocative form when delivering last week’s KPMG lecture on ‘The Role of UK Judges in the Success of UK plc’.
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Justice head bemoans judicial diversity gap
The head of law reform and human rights organisation Justice has heavily criticised the lack of diversity in the top echelon of the judiciary. ‘We are shamed’ by the lack of women and ethnic minority judges in the Supreme Court, compared with the US and Canada, ...
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‘Crude’ legal aid cuts get a pasting in the Lords
A Labour lord predicted a ‘prolonged and hard winter for access to justice’ as peers condemned ‘crude’ and ‘ill thought-out’ cuts to legal aid fees in a debate last night. The House of Lords was debating a motion tabled by Lord Bach, the former legal aid ...
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LSC improves its performance - but still overpays £51m
The National Audit Office has qualified the Legal Services Commission’s accounts for the third year running, due to overpayments made to providers. The commission’s annual report, published today, reveals that in 2010/11 the LSC overpaid legal aid providers an estimated £51 million; £29.5m due to solicitors’ ...
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Victim of crime - part 1
My partner has been praised by the police for helping put a criminal behind bars. She had a go, like the good citizen that she is, and the mean streets of Royal Tunbridge Wells are now just that little bit safer. ...
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Open all hours
Anyone who’s taken time out to read my recent Gazette features will know that I’ve received many pieces of legal services and legal market surveys and research down the years. Sometimes they impress, and sometimes they don’t - and unlike restaurant critics who haven’t worked ...
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SRA consults on client financial protection
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to consult on implementing planned reforms of client financial protection. The changes, announced in April 2011, include: closing the assigned risks pool from October 2013; a 90-day extended policy period from October 2012, for firms which have not taken new ...
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Chambers Guide launched
Lawyer rankings have risen by 8% to almost 9,800 in the 2012 edition of Chambers UK. The client’s guide to the legal profession, which researches factors such as quality and profile of work, incorporating client and barrister feedback, was published last night. ...
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European Day of Justice - are you ready to party?
I suspect that you’ve been waiting all year for the anniversary which comes around on 25th October: the European Day of Justice. You are planning to dress up in lawyers’ robes, and dance in the streets.
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Family justice manifesto calls for rethink on cuts
An alliance of groups opposed to the government’s family legal aid cuts has published a Manifesto for Family Justice, urging MPs to reconsider the proposals. The groups are concerned about the impact that provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill removing legal ...
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Human rights, words and lawyers
Last Saturday I attended part of the ‘Fairness, Justice and Human Rights’ conference, which was organised by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, the Law Society and others. I was struck by a phrase used in passing by one speaker, who referred to the United ...
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Service by email outside the jurisdiction
Can a defendant domiciled out of the jurisdiction be served by email with a claim form issued in England? That was the question before the High Court in the case of Louise Bacon v Automatic Inc and others [2011] EWHC 1072 (QB).
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Private equity buys into QualitySolicitors
QualitySolicitors has agreed a funding deal which marks the first major investment by private equity in the high street legal market, the Gazette can reveal. Pan-European private equity house Palamon Capital Partners has invested a ‘significant’ sum in QS. The agreement will see it gain a ...
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Solicitors From Hell slander action is thrown out
The High Court has thrown out a defamation claim by the founder of the Solicitors from Hell website against Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson. Rick Kordowski began legal proceedings after a blog from Professor John Flood had alleged that Hudson claimed Kordowski was a ‘criminal’. ...
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RTA portal fee fracas
As the Gazette revealed last month, the government’s plans to ban referral fees in personal injury cases have led insurers to start pushing for a cut in the fixed fees payable to claimant lawyers under the RTA portal scheme. The Ministry of Justice itself acknowledged that the fees would need ...
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New revolt on advocacy accreditation
Solicitor advocates have condemned plans to roll out the ‘bar-centric’ and potentially ‘unlawful’ Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) next April. More than 200 attended a meeting in London this week to voice their opposition to the ‘deeply flawed’ scheme, which some claim is ‘designed ...
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Relationship management to be limited to big firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given more details of its implementation strategy for outcomes-focused regulation. Its Relationship Management approach to risk-based supervision is to be rolled out to larger firms, after a pilot found that small firms did not require interaction with the regulator on ...
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Human rights
Insolvency - Voluntary arrangement - Approval by creditors Kapoor v National Westminster Bank and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Pill, Etherton, Sir Mark Potter): 5 October 2011 ...