The Law Society Gazette, 24 November 2005

Whitehall casts doubt on future of Project Eagle

Three years and some £650,000 after it was dreamed up, Project Eagle – an internet-based expert system developed to help non-legally qualified advisers give clients basic legal advice – looks destined to remain earthbound.

The project was the brainchild of the Legal Services Commission and two midlands-based Citizens Advice bureaux. A prototype covering employment law was built. However, funding could not be found to create a working system.

29 November 1995

Tabloid defence of witness payments

Tabloid newspaper lawyers reacted to the fall-out from the Rosemary West trial, predicting that it would be extremely difficult to change the contempt of court laws to prevent payment to witnesses. Tom Crone, who heads the legal department at News International, said: ‘The investigation in the West case was led by the media.’

27 November 1985

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is concerned about the detention without charge or trial of lawyers in Syria. Thirteen of the lawyers arrested in 1980 following a general strike called by the Syrian Bar Association and other professional bodies remain in prison, with no indication that they will be either released or charged and brought to trial. Despite its promises, the government continues to try detainees in the state security courts and several persons are alleged to have been sent to a special detention centre for execution without trial.

26 November 1975

Legal Aid annual report

As the Master of the Rolls said when attending the 25th anniversary celebration at the Law Society on 2 October, ‘Legal aid is one of the greatest reforms of our time – or of any time.’ This is something that familiarity with it must not be allowed to obscure. The report by the council reflects the problems created by the present financial difficulties.

December 1965

Advertising

Each year the Society receives a number of letters urging the council to start a campaign of institutional advertising, by which was meant advertising in the national press to inform the public what solicitors did, and how well they did it. This had considerable superficial attractions, but experience in other countries, notably the US, had shown that it also had considerable drawbacks.

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