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The cab-rank rule is ineffective and should be removed from the barristers’ code of conduct – and instead applied as a principle to all providers of legal services, including alternative business structures – a report published today has urged.

A judge has found in favour of a law firm in a trade mark infringement case against a firm of licensed conveyancers over its use of the word ‘Red’ when applied to legal services. London intellectual property specialists Redd Solicitors claimed that Northamptonshire conveyancers Red Legal Limited had infringed their trade marks.

Some barristers are worried that boycotting the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates will lead to their committing a criminal offence by practising without authorisation, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association has revealed. Meanwhile, the first wave of judicial training on the scheme has been successfully completed.

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.