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The president of the Family Division has set aside 21 fraudulent divorce petitions produced by a disbarred barrister. Sir James Munby found that, in each case, the underlying proceedings were “tainted by deception”. The applications were made by the Queen’s Proctor – an official of the Crown able to intervene in divorce and probate cases.

The Legal Ombudsman has appointed Rebecca Marsh as its new Chief Ombudsman. Ms Marsh is currently the executive director of operations and investigations, as well as deputy ombudsman, at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

A US law firm has received the largest ever fine handed out by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and also become the first firm to be found to have lacked integrity in its conduct. The tribunal has approved an agreement between Locke Lord and the Solicitors Regulation Authority that means there will not be a hearing.

A tribunal has rejected a solicitor’s plea not to strike him off so he could rebuild his life after being convicted of taking £100,000 from people who thought they were investing in vintage wines. Meanwhile, another tribunal has struck off a solicitor convicted of two counts of making an indecent photograph or ‘pseudo-photograph’ of a child.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating allegations made by a south-west law firm that a company employed by a large number of police forces to assist with road traffic prosecutions has been carrying out reserved activities without authorisation.

Two married constables working for Lancashire Police were sentenced last month for stealing police data about car crashes and selling it to claims firms for £363,000. An investigation was launched after people complained they were getting calls from law firms when they had not given their details to anyone other than the police.

Leading defendant law firm Keoghs has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) driven service that cuts legal costs for insurer clients by enabling them to handle work that is currently done by its lawyers. Its “AI lawyer”, called Lauri, is initially for what are called “avoidable litigation” cases – generally standard, low-value claims.

A law firm has been ordered to reveal to the tax man aspects of the advice it gave to a client after a tribunal found that the client had waived privilege in its grounds to bring an appeal out of time. However, to ensure that advice irrelevant to the issue at hand was not disclosed, the tribunal said it would review all redactions considered appropriate by the firm.

The Bar Council has issued its first series of certificates to recognise efforts made to support the wellbeing of barristers, clerks and chambers’ staff. The move came as the Criminal Bar Association – itself one of the 31 chambers, inns and specialist Bar associations to receive a certificate – warned of a “crisis” in the wellbeing of its members.

DoNotPay – the chatbot that aims to make access to the law free – has received $1.1m (£840,000) in backing from leading Silicon Valley investors, and even some lawyers. DoNotPay is the brainchild of English-born student Josh Browder, who started the site as a teenager to fight his own parking tickets.