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The chief executive of Britain’s biggest conveyancing firm, myhomemove, has predicted that Veyo, the online portal launched yesterday by the Law Society and Mastek, “will fail”. Doug Crawford was unveiling a new version of myhomemove’s eWay.

A solicitor who lied to High Court and was found guilty of contempt – leading the now Lord Chief Justice to refer him to the Solicitors Regulation Authority – has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Veyo, the online conveyancing portal developed by the Law Society and IT giant Mastek, went live today with around 80 law firms taking part in the first phase. A much larger group of 1,800 firms which expressed an interest in the system will be able to join shortly.

Eight people who pretended to be lawyers have been sentenced after scamming elderly people out of more than £500,000 in return for bogus asset protection trusts, with carrying out a reserved legal activity when not authorised one of the charges half of them faced.

Solicitors working pro bono could offer a triage system to people who cannot, or think they cannot, afford a lawyer so that they can understand their options for resolving legal disputes, the Law Society has told the new government.

Slater & Gordon’s £637m acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division has cleared its final hurdle after regulatory approval was granted by the Financial Conduct Authority. The transaction is now unconditional and on track for completion “shortly”.

A judge has launched an extraordinary attack on “by far the worst solicitor witness I have ever seen giving evidence in the witness box”. Edward Abenson told Legal Futures that the judge was “very harsh” on him.

New-style legal businesses continue to make waves in the City, with Lawyers on Demand (LOD) reporting strong annual results and Excello Law forming the first international alliance between “new-model dispersed law firms”. Meanwhile, Keystone Law has made waves with a daring publicity stunt in one of London’s busiest train stations.

The Legal Services Board has outlined its latest plans to improve the diversity of the profession, which will focus on developing ‘success criteria’ which regulators can use to judge their performance.

More than a quarter (26%) of complaints to the Legal Ombudsman are triggered by lack of clarity on fees, a major internal survey has found. Family law has emerged as the biggest offender, followed by wills and litigation.