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Smart contracts in cross-border commerce moved a step closer to the mainstream this week when three City law firm giants joined a project that is seeking to create global legal standards for blockchain-backed transactions. We also report on firms’ technology training moves and a knowledge transfer partnership between a law firm and university.

Estate agents will need to be more transparent over referral fees they receive from lawyers, while conveyancers will have to publish performance data, the government has decreed. It will also demand that conveyancers adopt more quality standards as part of a continuing push to help potential clients choose their lawyer.

The Legal Services Board has rejected calls to adopt a policy position on legal aid reform and the impact it might have on access to justice. The oversight regulator also rebuffed the argument that it should stop pushing for regulatory reform at a time of instability caused by Brexit.

Two solicitors have been struck off for their role in an insurance fraud that cost victims £426,000. They were the first solicitors caught by the City of London Police Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said both had been “motivated by greed”.

The Co-op has acquired Simplify Probate, the UK’s second largest provider of probate, as it bids to become the dominant player in the market. It has also unveiled a 13.6% increase in legal services turnover for 2017 and announced a strategic alliance with the Simplify Group for property and conveyancing services.

Law firms handling claims over mis-sold payment protection insurance are charging clients more than both the level the Solicitors Regulation Authority deems reasonable and the cap that will shortly be imposed on them by government, research by the regulator has found. It also criticised the use of standard letters, which will resonate in other process-driven areas of law.

The first element of the Online Court went public today, with a beta test enabling people to issue county court money claims for up to £10,000 more easily. The Ministry of Justice said the civil money claims pilot scheme “begins to deliver the vision… for claims worth up to £25,000 to be solved in an online court”.

Multinational companies with turnovers of over $1bn are spending less than half their external legal budgets on large law firms, a report has indicated. The survey found that specialist firms accounted on average for 28% of their budgets, while freelance contributors and consultants took 18% and online platforms 13%.

The first digital mortgage deed was entered into the Land Register today following collaboration and testing with Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing. Meanwhile, an online property sales platform that uses the blockchain to record property transactions has adopted artificial intelligence in its auction process.

Dame Elizabeth Filkin, a former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has become one of four lay members appointed to the new Chartered Institute of Legal Executives group board. The move comes as CILEx introduces a group structure with three companies