Latest news

More than a million passengers travelling to and from UK airports are still to claim delayed flight compensation for last year alone, a survey has found. However, it suggested that passengers may prefer to claim compensation directly from airlines.

The Solicitors Compensation Fund could be hit by a new wave of property claims after a High Court ruling on two test cases relating to a buy-to-let scheme.

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have for years advised staff that they may “target the communications of lawyers” and use legally privileged material “just like any other item of intelligence”, it was claimed yesterday after campaigners won the release of secret government policies.

Quindell chairman Rob Terry and two other directors have between them spent nearly £2m in buying shares in the company, in the latest bid to boost investor confidence in the alternative business structure.

The number of reports of bogus law firms received by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the first eight months of this year is up by over 20% on the same period last year, the regulator has said.

The Supreme Court has backed a law firm’s arguments that, following a breach of trust, it should have to pay in damages only the amount which the lender would have lost if the breach had not occurred.

Consumers and businesses believe that drafting “legally accurate and effective” documents is a more important quality of a competent solicitor than following professional rules, a major study has found.

Professor Avrom Sherr, one of the country’s leading legal academics, has said that “nobody listens to the Law Society” since it lost its regulatory role.

Legal education providers have warned that the possible introduction of a new, centralised assessment test for all would-be solicitors by the Solicitors Regulation Authority could be “a step back”.

The grant of licences to alternative business structures (ABSs) should be contingent on firms agreeing to undertake pro bono work, a Liberal Democrat peer suggested last night.