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A new marketing collective that is targeting consumer and commercial legal work – Simply Lawyers – is preparing for launch, Legal Futures can reveal. Meanwhile, Accidents Direct hopes to become the country’s leading claims management company by bringing more firms onto its panel.

The Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel have thrown their weight behind Friday’s Office of Fair Trading report that urged continuing simplification of the regulatory regime for lawyers, particularly around complaints.

Regulators need to speed up their processes for approving alternative business structures, the Office of Fair Trading said today. It also called for further simplification of the complaints system, recommended actions to increase the number of available pupillages and gave cautious support for the move away from title-based regulation.

Not all alternative business structure applicants have understood what is required of them, which in part explains delays in approving some licences, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said in a robust defence of the regulator’s performance that also dealt with compliance officer approvals.

The six circuits have each called meetings of heads of chambers to discuss whether to boycott the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), it has emerged. The leader of the south-eastern circuit said two aspects of QASA remain “entirely objectionable”.

The millionaire co-founder of Betfair – the world’s largest betting exchange – is the principal investor behind new alternative business structure Brilliant Law, it has emerged. Brilliant Law said it is the UK’s first law firm set up by non-lawyers, a team “renowned for challenging the markets within which they operate”

Personal injury firms have weathered the recession better than any other area of practice – and are far more likely to be looking for external investment than any other as well, one of the largest-ever surveys of solicitors’ firms has found. It said employment, family and corporate / commercial specialists also performed better than average.

Quindell Portfolio and Abbey Protection, AIM-listed companies which both received their alternative business structure licences last month, have reported that their 2012 results are looking good. Quindell said it has had more approaches from prospective acquisition targets, while Abbey is planning an acquisition.

A social welfare law firm, a boutique dispute resolution practice, and a dedicated volume remortgage specialist that wants to align its structure with its corporate clients, are among the most recent alternative business structures licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

An innovative US website that crowdsources advice to legal questions for free is on its way to the UK after it was acquired by online document service Rocket Lawyer, Legal Futures can reveal. LawPivot provides answers to any legal question from a network of more than 2,000 lawyers.