Latest News

Exclusive: law firms push out CMCs as referral fee ban reshapes PI search market

mobile phone with google

The abolition of referral fees is “dramatically reshaping” the online personal injury (PI) market, with legal brands pushing out claims management companies, according to major new research seen exclusively by Legal Futures.

May 24th, 2013

Don’t panic about new entrants but you have to act, warns solicitor who founded retail chain

Hashemi_Sahar hires

A staid profession is a dead profession, a solicitor turned high street entrepreneur has warned, telling lawyers that they need to change the way they do things. However, Sahar Hashemi – the one-time City solicitor who went on to found Coffee Republic – said law firms should not panic.

May 24th, 2013

SRA under fire for policing of referral fee ban and insurer/law firm ABSs

Andrew Twambley

The Solicitors Regulation Authority came under fire this week for the way it is enforcing the referral fee ban, with its director of policy and strategy unable to tell solicitors how many investigations it has started since the ban came into force seven weeks ago.

May 23rd, 2013

Forget ABSs – AI, touchable holographs and telepresence robots “will transform the law”

Artificial intelligence - cyber digital head

Artificial intelligence will be in widespread use by tomorrow’s law businesses, serving clients who will be mobile users of “digital personal assistants” that use holographic displays and respond to the thoughts of their owners, according to futurologists.

May 23rd, 2013

Legal Futures Blog

Where are all the consumer ABSs?

time is money

Cracking the non-PI consumer legal market could be the biggest prize yet. So why, asks Simon Goldhill of Legal Futures Associate Simon Goldhill Consultancy, is everyone looking the other way?
Law is big business. According to the latest government figures, the UK market generates over £26bn per annum. Recent analyses suggest that just under half of that comes from the business and commercial sector. Of the rest, £3.5bn relates to personal injury (PI) and £1.5bn to crime. That means that the non-PI consumer legal market in the UK is worth around £8bn per annum. This is equivalent to the entire 2012 turnover of the UK’s creative, arts and entertainment services industry.

May 21st, 2013