Last 3 months headlines – Page 1368
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A local solution to mediation
I write in connection with the Comment piece, ‘See the value of mediation'. Some years ago, Devon and Exeter Law Society, as it then was, ran an extremely successful small claims mediation scheme attached to the Exeter group of courts. Our society also trained and ...
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Selective memory
The Ministry of Justice seems to be suffering from amnesia in relation to the road traffic accident portal negotiations (see ‘Change to RTA portal legal fees’. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers was closely involved in the negotiations and we can confirm that the issue of ...
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Cuts to the courts service make it less likely that justice will be served
The Civil Justice Council’s working party on litigants in person will send a report to the justice secretary by the end of this month, outlining ways that unrepresented litigants’ access to justice could be improved.
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I'll state my case
Paul Dixon, this week’s Lawyer in the News, will soon be treating an audience of Portsmouth pub regulars to his version of the Sinatra classic My Way. Or perhaps he will be getting on down to Mustang Sally or even belting out We Are The Champions. He won’t be alone ...
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Play it again Sam
Putting the legal ombudsman and solicitors in the same room is like inviting Theresa May and Ken Clarke to a cat show. But the two factions got on remarkably well at a Law Society event last week – with chief ombudsman Adam Sampson (pictured) even extracting the odd laugh from ...
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Public will pay the price for insurers' costs plans
by Susan Brown, a director at Prolegal Insurers tell us they are committed to ‘paying genuine claimants the compensation they are entitled to’ (‘Tackling the Compensation Culture’, Association of British Insurers, 5 September).
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A purrfect stretch
Obiter is as fond as the next person of a bit of word play, but from the point where there was ‘fur flying’ in the fight between the home and justice secretaries over the cat that had human rights (or not), it was ...
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OFR provides a sound framework for the future
Last week marked a major landmark for every solicitor and law firm that we regulate. On 6 October our old, prescriptive rule book became history. With outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) we will focus on the issues that really matter and which suit the fast-paced, modern and liberalised legal services market. ...
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Employment
Pay - Statutory minimum - Employee working as temporary pub manager Wray v JW Lees & Co (Brewers) Ltd: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr Justice Underhill, Mrs R Chapman, Dr K Mohanty): 14 July 2011 ...
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Djanogly encourages claims managers to team up with solicitors
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly is content to see claims management companies (CMCs) forge closer ties with solicitors once the referral fee ban for personal injury cases has been introduced. Speaking at a Commons transport committee meeting on Tuesday on the cost of motor insurance, Djanogly said ...
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Mental Health
Persons who lack capacity - Best interest - European Convention on Human Rights Re M: CoP (Mr Justice Baker): 28 September 2011 The applicant, W, was the mother of M, ...
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Lawyers condemn single contract law
Europe neither needs nor can afford the EU-wide single contract law proposed by the European Commission this week, solicitors have warned. Frank Tschentscher, insolvency and re-structuring partner at German firm Schultze & Braun said: ‘Brussels is suggesting bolting on a new 28th law to the 27 ...
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Liam Fox finds his inner lawyer
Politicians, especially when in government, find lawyers and the law make good knocking copy. As my colleague John Hyde reported in a blog from the Conservative Party Conference, MP Ben Gummer was more colloquial than most in telling solicitors to ‘get real’ and stop ‘irresponsible’ opposition to government plans on ...
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Jackson calls for action on contingency legal aid fund
The ‘time is ripe for action’ on creating a Contingency Legal Aid Fund (CLAF), according to Lord Justice Jackson, architect of the government’s reforms of civil litigation costs. ‘There is clearly a strong will among many in the legal profession to make such a scheme work,’ he said. ...
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Is partnership still the holy grail?
Partnership in law firms used to be the holy grail that all lawyers aspired to. Years of hard graft and thankless toil led to the reward and status of becoming a partner. That look of respect and admiration at parties in reply to the question ‘what do you do?’ was ...
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Two steps forward, one step back
Let us have a party about two pieces of good news. There is not a lot of that around at present, for the legal profession or anyone else. And then we will give a loud boo to the bad news.
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This is our final OFR
Paul Rogerson talks to SRA chief executive Antony Townsend about the implementation of outcomes-focused regulation in a rapidly changing legal services market.
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Family crisis
The government’s Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will reach committee stage on the 11th October 2011. Following the consultation on legal aid earlier this year the government received over 5,000 responses in relation to plans to remove legal aid from large areas of the law.