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The Solicitors Regulation Authority has tempered its proposal to allow solicitors to set up their own law firms as soon as they qualify, as it unveiled the final wave of changes to its Handbook. This completes the two-year process of rewriting the handbook, which is set to be around 130 pages in total, more than 300 pages less than now.

The government yesterday fought off efforts in the House of Lords led by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf to remove the new compensation tariff that will govern whiplash injuries, although it has agreed that the Lord Chancellor should consult the Lord Chief Justice when setting it, in one of a series of relatively minor concessions.

The practising certificate fee for solicitors is set to be frozen this year, but contributions to bolster the Solicitors Compensation Fund are to more than double ahead of an expected rise in claims arising from their involvement in fraudulent investment schemes. The Law Society issued a consultation yesterday that laid out a proposed budget of £134.2m.

Insolvencies in the legal sector are set to double this year if trends seen in the first quarter of 2018 continue, indicating a possible downturn in the fortunes of law firms, it has been claimed. The figures also indicate that law firms may be waiting too long before seeking help.

The Legal Services Board has approved an application by CILEx Regulation to license alternative business structures, which will now go to the Lord Chancellor for a final decision. If successful, the regulator of chartered legal executives will become the sixth ABS licensing authority.

Opposition peers and leading legal figures will today try and curb the government’s whiplash reforms as the Civil Liability Bill enters its crucial report stage. Following last month’s committee stage, during which amendments probed the government’s thinking but were not pushed to a vote, this is the day when peers will make changes to the bill, if at all.

The criminal Bar has narrowly voted to accept the government’s offer of £15m additional funding for the advocates’ graduated fee scheme, a result described as “neither a defeat nor a victory”. Some 1,566 (51.55%) barristers voted to accept and 1,472 (48.45%) voted to reject.

Two barristers have had contrasting fortunes in appeals against high-profile sanctions imposed by the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal. While the High Court found that the tribunal had gone too far in suspending Roy Headlam for giving a client money, it upheld the reprimand handed out to Howard Godfrey QC for making “offensive” comments in court.

The Law Society has launched a fierce attack on the second attempt by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to reduce the indemnity insurance and compensation fund requirements for solicitors. The society opposed all the main proposals, including a new £500,000 minimum limit for compulsory indemnity cover.

Big Four accountant KPMG has been reprimanded and fined £3.15m by the Financial Reporting Council after admitting misconduct in its auditing of former personal injury alternative business structure Quindell. William Smith, KPMG’s ‘audit engagement partner’, was fined £84,000 after an investigation lasting nearly three years.