Last 3 months headlines – Page 1303
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‘Light touch’ OFR?
In her speech on 19 April announcing the delayed dates for the submission of nominations for the appointment of COLPs and COFAs, SRA executive director Samantha Barrass is reported to have said that in support of the nomination ‘a senior manager from the firm must confirm that the firm has ...
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Outmoded example
I do not seek to comment on the broad issues raised by the author of the letter ‘Smelling a rat', but I do take strong issue with the facts set out in the two cases he cites in his argument. In each case he mentions that ...
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PI lawyers rule out ‘deal or no deal’
Personal injury lawyers are refusing to play ‘deal or no deal games’ with the government over fixed fees for smaller cases. The government has written to all stakeholders asking them to suggest a limit for the value of claim that solicitors should be able to charge ...
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MoJ: ‘up to solicitors’ to police damages
A Ministry of Justice official has said it will be up to solicitors to police a key aspect of the civil litigation reforms. Robert Wright, head of civil litigation and funding at the MoJ, admitted last week there is no way for the government to ensure ...
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The competitive advantage of a workaholic practice is presumed, but rarely calculated
Long hours are deeply ingrained in the culture of legal services. In all shapes of practice, they have long been the assumed norm.
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Police interviewing loophole must be tackled urgently
by Robin Murray, a criminal solicitor and founding partner at Kent firm Robin Murray & Co We thought the offer of access to free and independent legal advice to suspects, prior to police questioning, was automatic under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) codes. ...
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CCRC criticisms were grossly unfair
by Richard Foster, chair of the CCRC The Gazette article about the Criminal Cases Review Commission was both biased and inaccurate.
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‘Raise cap’ on crime victims’ compensation
Personal injury lawyers have called on the government to raise the cap on compensation for victims of crime. A Ministry of Justice consultation, ‘Getting it right for victims and witnesses’, closed this week after three months. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers responded to the consultation ...
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Ken and Co live it up
Highlighting free hospitality and schmoozing enjoyed by ministers is a cheap journalistic shot, which is why Obiter is happy to indulge. This month saw the latest quarterly list published by the Ministry of Justice of ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings. Sadly, the figures go ...
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Calls for a global legal profession are fanciful
There has been talk in recent years, at conferences or in committee discussions within international legal organisations, about the need for a global legal profession. Harvard Law School has been the latest to climb on the band-wagon with a mid-April conference on the subject.
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Pole position
The things lawyers do to get their books in the news. Paul Tweed, of Belfast and London firm Johnsons, persuaded a client, the ultra runner Richard Donovan, to read his latest work Privacy and Libel Law: the Clash with Press Freedom at the North Pole. (Tweed represented Donovan in a ...
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Brighton rock
What’s pink, can have an ‘adverse effect on activity and attention’ and has the Council of Europe running all the way through it? No, it’s not justice secretary Kenneth Clarke. It’s a stick of Brighton rock, compliments of the Ministry of Justice. The MoJ ordered 500 customised sticks of rock ...
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Exit wound
It seems the insurance industry can get into Downing Street no problem - but exits are a little more tricky. Nick Starling, director of the Association of British Insurers, must have been happy to have survived an hour in the presence of claimant lawyers. Indeed, ...
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Judges can and should be involved in pro bono
I have heard it said that judges cannot get involved in pro bono work. On the contrary, I can think of many and various ways in which judges might get involved. And, in fact, a good number are already doing so.
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Competition reform could boost collective litigation
Government proposals to reform competition law, making it easier to bring class actions against firms in breach, could ‘fuel’ claims and ‘create a new business in collective litigation’, the Confederation of British Industry has warned. A consultation published this week by the Department for Business, Innovation ...
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LASPO bound for statute book after cliffhanger final vote
The government’s controversial legal aid reforms are set to become law after it won its final battle over the bill in the House of Lords yesterday. Peers had inflicted 14 defeats on the government in votes on proposed amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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Long con artist’s sinking feeling
It is 150 years since Lady Tichborne, who never accepted that her son Roger had died when his sailing ship sank somewhere between Jamaica and Rio de Janeiro in 1854, began a newspaper campaign to find her lost boy.
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Supreme Court dismisses Seldon age discrimination appeal
The Supreme Court today ruled against a former equity partner who had brought an age discrimination case against his law firm for unlawfully making him retire aged 65. It sent the case back to the Employment Tribunal to decide an issue that remains outstanding.
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Whiplash claims need objective evidence, say insurers
The body representing the insurance industry has called for compensation for whiplash claims to be withheld until there is ‘objective evidence’ of injury. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has urged the government to look at radical action to tackle growing numbers of whiplash claims. Speaking ...
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In praise of learned Lords
It seems likely that any move to make the House of Lords a predominantly directly elected chamber would reduce the number of lawyers who sit on its red benches. It has been a generation since the Commons, whose traditional hours reflected the need of many MPs to practise law in ...