Last 3 months headlines – Page 1373
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The SRA is adamant that ‘outcomes-focused’ does not mean ‘light-touch’
‘Principles-based regulation will sustain the current, rigorous regulatory environment, but with better and more effective outcomes.’ No, that’s not what the SRA says about today’s implementation of outcomes-focused regulation - but what the Financial Services Authority said about its own switch to an ‘outcome-focused’ compliance ...
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DPAs will provide effective tool for combating corporate crime
by Edward Garnier QC MP, solicitor general Prosecuting serious and complex economic crime in the UK is difficult. Investigations and prosecutions are long, expensive and resource-intensive. Too few companies are ever held to account for their crimes.
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Competition
European Union - Cartel offence Lucite International Ltd and another v European Commission: General Court of the European Union (Fourth Chamber) (Judges Forwood, President, Labucka (Rapporteur) and O'Higgins): 15 September 2011 ...
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Not so grim up north… yet
As legal aid lawyers in England and Wales resign themselves to yet more fee cuts, they will be heartened to learn that their brothers and sisters in law north of the border saw some of their fees actually rise last year. The annual report of the Scottish Legal Aid Board ...
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Payback time
Talking of legal aid, firms that have been waiting months for their money may have found a notice posted on the Legal Services Commission’s website a tad galling. It concerns the timely payment of expert witnesses. Some experts, it would seem, are a bit miffed ...
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Words lose value
I refer to the letter from Samantha Barrass. How much time and money has been spent coming up with the idea of changing ‘this firm is regulated by…’ to ‘authorised and regulated by…’? I cannot see how all this ‘consultation’ and ‘regulation’ assists solicitors or the ...
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Turner prize
His photograph made him ‘look like an undertaker’, but otherwise employment lawyer Gordon Turner (pictured) was happy with the critique of his firm’s new website. He had set Obiter and others a challenge. For every typo or error we found on the new website, he ...
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When less is more
I am told that the new SRA Handbook is over 500 pages. To quote from the Solicitors Handbook 2011 (p32): ‘The introduction of OFR will give a simplified rulebook and freedom to practise innovatively.’ My Law Society looseleaf quotes that The Professional Conduct of Solicitors from 1986, including all the ...
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Mediators win, win
Suzanne Lowe is right. Clients appreciate a swift and cheaper resolution of their dispute, in a process in which they are not just involved, but in command. I recall how delighted a middle-aged professional man was to have his fee claim entirely agreed and concluded within ...
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Paying the price
I read in the press last week that two politicians, Ed Miliband and Grant Shapps, want the ‘something for nothing’ culture in this country to end. As a duty solicitor, I wholeheartedly agree, but sadly politicians in the Ministry of Justice do not. From Monday 3 ...
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‘Irreversible’ cuts
I am disturbed at the relative silence that prevails, when we are facing unprecedented cuts in legal aid and access to lawyers for many vulnerable people. On top of the 10% cut announced for family work from 3 October, we are entering a bid round that will lead to a ...
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Figuring out CLAF
I was interested to read the article by Jon Robins regarding a contingency legal aid fund (CLAF). Robins quoted what former shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham said about the idea of a CLAF. I was in fact the person who put the idea to Bellingham - and the exact words ...
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Extra land in registered plan
I wonder if anyone has an answer to what seems to be a perverse finding of the Agricultural Land Tribunal (ever heard of it?). I had a classic 'Rylands and Fletcher' situation where adjoining land owned by a farming partnership flooded because of a failed drain. ...
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Fatal attraction
One of the saddest stories I ever heard about a lawyer in love was that of New Zealander Gary Alderdice - known as ‘Never Plead Guilty Gary’. After the collapse of his marriage in the 1990s, the Hong Kong-based Alderdice started making trips on the hydrofoil to neighbouring Macau (pictured). ...
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Fatal attraction
One of the saddest stories I ever heard about a lawyer in love was that of New Zealander Gary Alderdice - known as ‘Never Plead Guilty Gary’. After the collapse of his marriage in the 1990s, the Hong Kong-based Alderdice started making trips on the hydrofoil to neighbouring Macau (pictured). ...
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News
Fatal attraction
One of the saddest stories I ever heard about a lawyer in love was that of New Zealander Gary Alderdice - known as ‘Never Plead Guilty Gary’. After the collapse of his marriage in the 1990s, the Hong Kong-based Alderdice started making trips on the hydrofoil to neighbouring Macau (pictured). ...
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News
Intellectual property
European Union - Trademarks - Registration Chalk v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM): General Court of the European Union (First Chamber) (Judges Azizi (Rapporteur), President, Cremona and Frimodt Nielsen): 9 September 2011 ...