The Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove, has offered to suspend the latest cut to criminal legal aid fees if criminal defence solicitors agree not to continue their national boycott of legal aid work at the new rate. A second 8.75% cut to fees was introduced in July, but defence solicitors refused to accept the work, although they backed down in August as a gesture of goodwill. The Criminal Law Solicitors Association and London Criminal Courts’ Solicitors Association are considering Gove’s offer.
25 September 2015
Legal aid latest
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Clarke Willmott—Megan Bradbury
Corporate team welcomes paralegal in Southampton
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Howard Kennedy—Paul Moran
London firm strengthens real estate team with partner appointment
Cripps—Radius Law
Commercial and technology practice boosted by team hire
NEWS
Pathfinder courts—renamed ‘Child focused courts’—are to be rolled out nationally, following a successful pilot where backlogs halved and cases were resolved up to seven and a half months faster
The Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a £385,000 costs order against a father, in a case that centred on what is required to meet the threshold of ‘reprehensible or unreasonable’ behaviour
Centuries-old burial laws would be overhauled, under Law Commission proposals to address the burgeoning problem of shortage of cemetery space
The government has committed an extra £32m to women’s charities and services tackling addiction, trauma, abuse and homelessness
The Financial Ombudsman is poised for major reform to return it to a simple, impartial dispute resolution service
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