Last 3 months headlines – Page 1339
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Lib Dem peer holds out hope for LASPO retreat
A Liberal Democrat peer has indicated there could be ‘major changes’ to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill during its passage through the House of Lords. Lord Phillips of Sudbury, a former solicitor, said the majority of cross bench and Labour peers, along ...
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Whiplash is a pain in the neck to write about
To borrow from Donald Rumsfeld, there are known knowns and there are things we know we know, but we also know there are unknown knowns. No sooner had the Commons transport committee waded into this minefield earlier this week than my inbox was flooded with responses.
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£185m rescue for NHS litigation fund
The Department of Health has confirmed that a £185m emergency bailout fund has been found for the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA). Clinical negligence claims against the NHS reached an estimated value of £1bn last year, after rising from from £5,697m to £8,655m over the preceding five years. ...
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Employment
Unfair dismissal - Constructive dismissal - Damages - Two appeals being heard together Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Botham v Ministry of Defence (Lords Phillips P, Walker, Mance, Kerr, Dyson and Wilson, Lady Hale): Supreme Court: ...
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Proposed procedures are misguided
Government moves that would further undermine open justice have been attacked by the very lawyers on whom ministers rely to support the existing system of closed courts. It’s a major setback for the security service, which persuaded justice secretary Kenneth Clarke to endorse the reforms in a green paper on ...
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Environment
Protection - Pollution - Air pollution - European directive requiring reduction in emissions R (on the application of Clientearth) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Mitting (judgment delivered extempore)): 13 December ...
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In defiance of logic
Supreme Court justice-elect Jonathan Sumption QC may be of a dazzlingly high intellectual calibre with a heady penchant for the Hundred Years War but, as Roger Smith intimates, is he so subjective in his view of the role of the state in modern Britain that he is willing to regularly ...
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Focus on justice, not social engineering
Is racism now worse than murder? A few weeks ago I heard about a couple of cases which, if accurately reported, gave me great concern about the politicised nature of our criminal justice system. It was reported that there had recently been an instance where family ...
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Right prescription for public respect
We are all familiar with some of the well-known pejorative words and phrases used about lawyers in general and solicitors in particular. We have spent years and probably many millions of pounds trying to improve our public image using PR firms and proposals. I wish to float an idea which ...
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Commercial need
I wonder whether solicitors like your correspondent Franklin Sinclair have considered that, in the long run, they might do their clients, including the most vulnerable, more good by refusing to carry out large amounts of unpaid work for the benefit of an ungrateful taxpayer, than by flogging themselves to death ...
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Cameron told: ‘engage with profession on PI’
The Law Society has urged David Cameron to engage with the legal profession following his attack on the health and safety ‘monster’ and personal injury fees. In a speech last week, the prime minister proposed capping fees for personal injury claims at £25,000 and including ...
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HSBC conveyancing panel size 'could harm consumer choice'
Concerns are growing that the restricted size of HSBC’s new conveyancing panel may harm consumer choice. The bank launched the panel this week to provide services to residential mortgage customers. It has 43 members across the UK, 39 of which are solicitor firms and four licensed conveyancing companies. ...
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LSC faces action on family law contracts
The Legal Services Commission faces the threat of litigation from legal aid firms refused new family law contracts. Between 30 and 40 firms that made technical or clerical errors in the submission of their applications for contracts in the October 2011 bid round are taking advice ...
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PI firms inundated over banned implants
Personal injury firms say they are receiving hundreds of enquiries every week from women treated with now banned PIP breast implants. Up to 40,000 women in the UK have been fitted with implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese. The Department of Health has offered ...
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Law Society wary on shared parenting possibility
The Law Society’s family law committee has cautioned against introducing a legal presumption of shared parenting after divorce, following indications that the government may seek to change the law. Children’s minister Tim Loughton has said that the government is ‘looking closely at all the options ...
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Bottoms and broomsticks
Surveying the dismal content of Berezovsky v Abramovich, Obiter can’t help feeling a little nostalgic for great court cases of the past. Our favourite, of course, is the 1961 ‘Lady Chatterley trial’, R v Penguin Books Ltd. What’s not to like about a trial where ...