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The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Claims Management Regulator have dismissed a Law Society suggestion that they will not be ready to implement the referral fee ban on 1 April. The society said there was a possibility the pair “may have some difficulty” in doing so.

A free online business supplier community that allows law firms and other providers to pitch for service requirements posted by other UK businesses has been launched by NatWest and RBS. BizCrowd aims to take online the bank manager’s role in connecting businesses.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority giving solicitors positive permission to hold client money is one of the options it will consider as part of the review of conveyancing, it has emerged. It has also expressed concern about mortgage lenders using solicitors as an insurance policy against problems.

A start-up company aimed at offering small and medium-sized businesses a wide range of legal and non-legal advice has received its alternative business structure (ABS) licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Regulators face an “uphill struggle” to put consumers in a position where they can be useful in helping to driving competition in the legal market, a study has warned. The Legal Services Consumer Panel suggested consumers are “currently not very empowered” and lack confidence.

An international boutique legal consultancy headed by Cherie Booth QC, which advises governments on strategy, has received an alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Omnia Strategy hit the headlines last year when it was reported to be advising the government of Bahrain.

Stress continues to dominate calls to legal healthcare charity LawCare, and this in turn leads some lawyers to alcoholism later in their careers, its review of 2012 has said. More than two-thirds (69%) of the 378 case files opened last year related to stress.

The government is to try and overturn a House of Lords vote that the Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO) jurisdiction should extend to bailiffs – although the ombudsman himself has said he is open to the idea. Shortly before Christmas, peers voted 233 to 191 in favour of an amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill.

The first law firm with individual non-lawyer investors has been granted its alternative business structure licence. Everyman Legal – which both employs lawyers at its Oxfordshire base and has developed a network of home-working solicitors around the country – has six private investors who will shortly become shareholders of the firm.

The Legal Services Board has rejigged and expanded its legal advisers panel, although its two previous main sources of external advice – City firm Hogan Lovells and London chambers 39 Essex Street – have retained their places on it.