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Pro bono no substitute for legal aid – Wotton

May 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lawyers need to do more to bridge the gaps in access to justice caused by legal aid reforms, the Law Society president told an international conference in Russia. However he stressed that pro bono work is no substitute for a properly funded legal aid system.

John Wotton, speaking at a forum attended by the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, said the legal aid cuts in England & Wales, made in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, pose challenges in ensuring that the most vulnerable can obtain legal advice.

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Family Law solicitors in Sevenoaks
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Justice and Security Bill faces a rough ride

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Justice & Security Bill is to allow the courts, through the ‘limited use of closed proceedings’, to consider all material relating to a case without needing to disclose information that could risk national security.

The government says its purpose is to ‘respond to the challenge of using sensitive information in civil proceedings where the government is party, without risking disclosure contrary to the public interest’. It will also ‘enhance the current oversight regimes’ of the security and intelligence agencies.

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Solicitors Sevenoaks
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Spectator to face contempt charge over Lawrence trial article

May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Crown Prosecution Service is to prosecute The Spectator magazine over an opinion column published during the Stephen Lawrence murder trial last year.

The notice to prosecute is the first since the CPS published guidelines that called for prosecutors to assess whether the public interest outweighed the overall criminality in cases affecting the media. Attorney general Dominic Grieve referred the article, by Rod Liddle (pictured), to the CPS in November to decide whether reporting restrictions in place at the time had been breached.

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Conveyancing Solicitors Sevenoaks
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LLPs 10 years on

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In fact, limited liability partnerships (LLPs) have been with us for just over 11 years since their introduction in April 2001. Although it was possible to operate a law firm as a limited company prior to 2001, an LLP has been viewed as a more obvious alternative to a traditional partnership, not least because of its tax transparency. After a slow uptake in the legal profession, LLPs have become a common structure for law firms of a certain size.

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Blogs | Law Gazette



Lawyers in Sevenoaks
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‘Ludicrous, immoral and wicked’: Bach bites back at LASPO

May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lord (Willy) Bach, the peer who led Labour’s opposition to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill in the House of Lords, stepped down last week as shadow legal aid minister, a couple of days before the measure received royal assent to become an act.

The former legal aid minister condemns the act, which seeks to save £350m a year by cutting legal aid scope and eligibility, as ‘outrageous legislation’ that will harm the ‘disabled, poor and vulnerable, and those least able to defend themselves’.

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Features | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Solicitors
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