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Admiral Insurance and national law firm Lyons Davidson – which received its alternative business structure licence in November – are having talks about linking up, but it will not involve the law firm being acquired, Legal Futures can report.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates is illogical in its treatment of QCs and does not serve the public interest by allowing solicitors to act as plea-only advocates, the chairman of the Bar Council has argued. The claims come as the bodies representing criminal law solicitors and barristers united in calling for a halt to the scheme.

Legal regulators have failed to open up their professional registers containing disciplinary information to price comparison websites, despite having been instructed to do so by the Legal Services Board, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has complained.

The Law Society has urged solicitors to protect themselves against the new terms of business being introduced by the Bar next week because they are “weighted strongly” in favour of barristers. From 31 January the traditional default system of non-contractual terms will be replaced.

The Bar has clashed with academics calling for an end to the cab-rank rule over whether the problem of finding lawyers to represent the accused in the recent Delhi rape and murder case is proof of the rule’s continuing value.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is confident of its interpretation of the referral fee ban but simply cannot give the level of clarity over which business models will comply that many want, the official leading the work said yesterday.

The government does not intend to extend legal professional privilege to non-lawyers, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday after accountants urged Parliament to level the playing field for multi-disciplinary entities.

The scale of non-compliance with the SRA over COLPs and COFAs became clear yesterday, with 152 firms now facing enforcement action for failing to complete their nominations, and the revelation that 1,200 nominees did not declare “potentially relevant issues” – including undisclosed criminal convictions, serious disciplinary sanctions and undeclared bankruptcy.

The Supreme Court has ruled 5:2 in favour of not extending legal professional privilege to non-lawyers, even where they are giving legal advice that they are qualified to give. The court said it would make a well-established principle unclear and also that it was ultimately a matter for Parliament.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority will tomorrow be asked to confirm an outcomes-focused approach to implementing the referral fee ban, along with a commitment to develop guidance “as our knowledge of different schemes increases” – although this will fall short of ‘safe harbour’ advice.