Latest news

The government has emphasised its intention to introduce a ban on cold-calling by adding it to the long title of the parliamentary bill that will bring the ban about. The news comes as the bill has been amended to cap at 20% the fees CMCs and lawyers can charge consumers for claims management services in relation to PPI claims.

The last financial year has continued a return to profitability for many small and mid-sized firms, although cash is tight as lock-up has increased, according to an analysis of the accounts of more than 100 law firms of up to 30 partners.

The recent Supreme Court ruling that changed the test of dishonesty could cause delays and more hearings at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, its chief executive has warned. The prediction came as the tribunal’s 2018 budget of £2.8m – a fall of 2.5% on the current year – was ratified by the Legal Services Board.

The government’s whiplash reforms will have to be published soon to meet Treasury forecasts published with Wednesday’s Budget, a leading insurance law firm has suggested. BLM said the material “appears to indicate that government expects to implement these reforms before April 2019”.

The standard of proof in disciplinary cases involving barristers is being lowered to the balance of probabilities following a decision yesterday by the Bar Standards Board. Meanwhile, a former Labour minister has been appointed as the next chair of the board.

A solicitor has been struck off for dishonestly creating a false email that he sent to a law firm supervising his wife’s training contract, purporting to be from a Solicitors Regulation Authority authorisation officer. He claimed its purpose was to break a logjam preventing his wife from completing her training.

The co-founder of the only wholly owned trade union alternative business structure has described the legal sector as not concerned with the general public’s access to justice but “access to profit”. He said the legal industry still “seems to be obsessed by debt, profit and finance”, with hardly a thought for the client.

Up to 70% of the law can be carried out by robots and all legal documents will be automated within a decade, according to the student entrepreneur who created the ground-breaking DoNotPay chatbot. He painted a picture of the future in which voice-activated chatbots would assist litigants-in-person and online courts would interact with chatbot

All of the 3,000 law firms accredited under the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme need to ensure they are not using in their own marketing the society’s description of the scheme that was yesterday ruled to be misleading, it has emerged.

Two partners in a Cheshire law firm have been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for their part in a failed ‘rare earth metal’ investment scheme. The firm processed transactions worth almost £2m for a company, based in Hong Kong, on behalf of a local businessman.