Last 3 months headlines – Page 1310
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Sentencing
Imprisonment - Length of sentence - Conspiracy to supply drugs R v Kotecha; R v Kotecha; R v Kakkad; R v Suvania: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Wilkie, Mr Justice Holroyde): 6 September 2011 ...
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Judicial appointments
Solicitors make first-rate judges. That is a bold statement, but it is one that Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) chair Christopher Stephens (pictured) stands by. He is ‘passionate’, he tells the Gazette, about seeing more solicitors securing a judicial role. The opportunities for solicitors are certainly there. ...
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Lawyers2you franchise launch highlights lack of marketing and client care skills
I am delighted that the recent story about the Lawyers2you franchise launch by Blakemores has sparked debate.
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Erring on fees
I am writing to shed some light on the current referral fee scheme, which Jack Straw appears to have adopted as his current specialism. There is one major misconception which appears to be the primary motivation fuelling Mr Straw’s outrage at the system. It is ...
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Train to nowhere
Andrew Sutherland is quite correct - and accurately describes my route into the profession.
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Sentencing
Imprisonment - Length of sentence - Conspiracy to supply Class A drug Attorney General's Reference (No 40 of 2011) R v Williams: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Tugendhat, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, judgment delivered ...
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Sentencing
Imprisonment - Length of sentence R v Johnson: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division: 8 September 2011 The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, allowed an appeal by the defendant against an ...
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PFI; refusing requests; public sector salaries
Public authorities often enter into outsourcing and private finance initiative (PFI) arrangements with the private sector to run services or deliver capital projects. These are often the subject of complex requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). Sometimes the private sector will ...
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Bid to force ABS reform on US states
Final submissions will be made this week in a landmark legal action which experts believe could open up the US legal market to alternative business structures.
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New law franchise targets 600 firms
Another national law firm franchise formally launches today, designed to help firms compete against cut-price and ‘faceless’ providers which operate online and through call centres. Face2face solicitors, set up by solicitor Ray Gordon (pictured), is targeting smaller firms and startups, offering reduced overheads and ...
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Lenders warned over panel charges
The Law Society has warned mortgage lenders against following the example of Santander by charging a fee for conveyancing panel membership. Chancery Lane told the Council of Mortgage Lenders that such a trend would make house buying more expensive, and could see solicitors applying for several ...
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Police ‘abusing’ bail rules
The police are abusing bail rules, the chairman of the Law Society’s criminal law committee has alleged. Richard Atkinson has called for evidence from solicitors of what he believes to be a worsening phenomenon. He said: ‘Practitioners have very real concerns that huge numbers of people ...
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EU law education programme launched
Some 700,000 of the EU’s estimated 1.4 million lawyers, prosecutors and judges will have received a week’s formal training in EU law by 2020, the European Commission (EC) announced last week. The EC said in a press statement that the aim is to equip legal practitioners ...
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Junior lawyers slam college over training contracts
The Junior Lawyers Division has angrily rejected College of Law claims that there will soon be more training contract vacancies than Legal Practice Course graduates to fill them. The college has been accused of ‘spinning’ the figures to make it appear that securing a training contract ...
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Olswang to pilot new training model targeting City firms
A groundbreaking solicitor training model has launched this week, targeting City law firms and in-house legal departments. The first non-legal services provider to be authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to take on trainees, Acculaw claims it will cut costs and improve efficiency for firms looking ...
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Advising clients on compliance in UK-Swiss tax agreement will not be straightforward
The UK-Swiss tax agreement, announced last month, will be in force from 31 May 2013, and full details will only be made available as both countries sign it. But it is already clear that the existence of the agreement places legal advisers in a difficult position when advising their clients ...
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Human rights
Police - Powers - Police containing protesters at demonstration R (on the application of Castle and others) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis: QBD (Admin) (Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Supperstone): 8 September 2011 ...
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Lib Dem dissenters told LASPO reforms will go ahead
The Law Society and Bar Council have urged Liberal Democrats to hold their party to account over the government’s reforms of legal aid and civil litigation costs. But Lib Dem peer and justice minister Lord McNally (pictured), who will pilot the legislation through the Lords, has signalled that compromise is ...
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Legal aid bill ‘contravenes UN convention’
The government’s plans to remove legal aid in private law family cases will place the UK in breach of its obligations under a United Nations convention to prevent discrimination against women, the Gazette has been told. Cris McCurley, partner and head of international family law at ...