Last 3 months headlines – Page 1350
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My experience as a conveyancing client
Just over two years ago my colleague Rachel Rothwell, now editor of Litigation Funding magazine, wrote a blog with the same title as this one. Rothwell shopped around a bit, asked questions about referral fees, and eventually settled on a licensed conveyancer above a couple of ...
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SRA 'grey areas' an issue for troubled firms
The implementation of the Legal Services Act in October 2011 has brought a significant wave of changes and challenges to the legal profession, which is only just starting to be felt by law firms. Law firms are facing several challenges and opportunities: new regulatory structures ...
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Libel reform coming, says McNally
Libel reform should not be delayed by the ‘Leveson tsunami’, the justice minister Lord McNally said today, giving a strong hint that a reform bill would feature in the government’s next legislative programme. ‘I would be immensely disappointed if it wasn’t in the Queen’s speech,’ McNally told a conference organised ...
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ECHR vindicates UK for second time in a week
The UK government has been cleared of human rights violations for the second time this week, following a ruling by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights that by suspending a doctor from practice it had not violated his right to ‘peaceful enjoyment of possessions’.
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Question time
It took a month, but the Gazette’s revelations of difficulties with Ministry of Justice interpreting arrangements have finally reached the top. Labour MP Gisela Stuart last week used prime minister’s questions to ask about the quality of service experienced by West Midlands Police from translating contractor Applied Language Solutions. The ...
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Honouring the legend of Darrow
The American lawyer Clarence Darrow (pictured) did not come to the annual wreath-tossing in his honour last week. But then he hasn’t appeared since his death in 1938. Darrow, never a believer in Spiritualism, said that if he ever did return it would be in Jackson Park, Chicago, on the ...
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Message to Cameron: there is no compensation culture
Dear Mr Cameron, I am writing to you as my MP but also, more importantly, as my prime minister. I voted in the Conservatives because I felt that Labour had not done what they promised. I now find myself furious and pretty ...
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Law Society slams barristers’ public access plan
Proposals to allow barristers with less than three years' experience to accept work directly from the public without supervision are ‘an abdication of regulatory risk,’ according to the Law Society. Responding to a Bar Standards Board (BSB) consultation on relaxing the public access rules, Chancery Lane called for ‘clear and ...
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Should surplus lawyers sue?
In New York suits have been filed against 14 law schools on behalf of alumni who have been unable to start the legal career they had set their hearts on. It would be easy to sneer at what looks, from a certain angle, like the plaintiffs’ ...
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Rights commission in disarray following factional splits
Chaos reigns among the members of the commission set up by the prime minister to draft a replacement for the Human Rights Act (HRA), leaked emails and a resignation suggest. According to documents leaked to the press, one Tory member of the commission has accused the ...
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MPs’ caseloads will bear the brunt of legal aid cuts
MPs will face a ‘rising tide of need’ from constituents with unmet legal needs if the government’s legal aid cuts are implemented, according to a report published today by the Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) group. The study warns that increasing numbers of people are turning ...
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How long can the USA hold off ABSs?
With David Cameron and Barack Obama currently cementing their special relationship, the focus is very much on the links that bind the UK and US.
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CPS monitor warns of advocacy gap
The Crown Prosecution Service has saved £26m over the past five years by increasing its use of in-house advocates - but done little to improve those advocates’ quality, the CPS inspectorate reports today. In a follow up to its 2009 report on the CPS’s advocacy strategy, ...
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CFA reform will not be retrospective, MoJ says
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today sought to quell fears that Jackson reforms would be applied retrospectively to cases launched before April 2013. Changes to civil litigation are set to be implemented next year once the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill has been ...
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Government blocks bid for immigration and debt amendments to LASPO
Opponents of the government’s legal aid reforms suffered defeats in two votes last night as peers continued to debate the controversial Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) bill. In the third sitting of the bill’s report stage, the government defeated amendments that would have ...
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Women in boardrooms: have the zombies won?
European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding recently surprised herself, and the world, too. She walked up to the microphone, after having rehearsed all morning before her bathroom mirror an announcement to bring in quotas for women in company boardrooms. She had threatened as much a year ago, when she said ...
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Federal court strikes down attempt to overturn ownership rule
A New York personal injury firm has failed in its attempt to overrule the state’s ban on non-lawyer ownership.
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Subsidiarity and Gypsies
They are called didicoys or pikeys in Kent and they are the subject of an admonishing letter sent to the UK government by the Strasbourg court, which is again venturing into a part of the British psyche where even angels fear to tread. First the European ...
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Can the Fiji government’s sensitivities be exploited?
When it comes to the topic of their legality, dictators are a surprisingly needy bunch, and Fiji’s current rulers are no exception. Following the Gazette’s report on the rule of law (or lack thereof) in Fiji , its attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and director of public prosecutions, New Zealander Christopher ...
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Survey shows top 100 fee income up by 7.2%
Firms just outside the top 25 are prospering more than anyone as fee income continues to rise across the upper echelons of the legal market. The latest quarterly survey by Deloitte of the legal service market - covering the third quarter of 2011/12 - found strongest ...