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The government plans to introduce its whiplash reforms in April 2019, it emerged today. The Motor Accident Solicitors Society said it has today been told that ministers have agreed for the personal injury reforms to be implemented from that date, with an initial focus on RTA.

The High Court has ordered the Solicitors Regulation Authority to make a fresh judgment of a would-be solicitor’s character and suitability to join the profession after finding that it had wrongly denied her an oral hearing to explain an issue that it decided showed dishonesty.

The next chief executive of the Law Society could earn £300,000 after the job was finally advertised – more than a year since the last one quit. The post comes with a salary of up to £230,000, a bonus of up to 30% and a defined contribution pension scheme.

Trust corporations wanting to act as property and affairs deputies for incapacitated people must be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to gain immediate approval, the Court of Protection has said.

A solicitor convicted of sexual assault did not fail to uphold the rule of law and the proper administration of justice, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled in a decision that will have implications for future prosecutions of those with criminal convictions.

The English lawyer behind a bid to provide legal backing to deals involving both the virtual world of blockchain and real world commerce, has forecast that in a decade most global trade will be governed by arbitration agreements coupled with smart contracts.

A former worker at an accident repair firm who downloaded and sold the personal data of motorists to nuisance callers has been convicted under the Data Protection Act of unlawfully obtaining and disclosing data. Meanwhile, a barrister has been reprimanded after leaving documents on the London Underground.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to appeal to the High Court over the sanction imposed by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in a ground-breaking ruling last month on mental health and dishonesty, Legal Futures can reveal. The case involved fabricating and backdating documents, which is becoming increasingly common misconduct.

The Bar Standards Board is to regulate a law firm led by a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, it has emerged. No practising barristers will be involved in the firm, but its principal is also an unregistered (ie, non-practising) barrister.

Insurance lawyers’ call for the government to extend the fee cap to be imposed on PPI cases to personal injury claims ahead of the whiplash reforms fell on deaf ears this week. CMCs specialising in PPI have separately warned the government that the cap could “destroy” their industry.