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The government yesterday began laying the ground for the online resolution of certain employment disputes, in the first sector-specific example of plans to transform the justice system. It also set out greater uses of case officers among other recommendations of Lord Justice Briggs that are being adopted.

Some 810 solicitors from England and Wales will have been admitted in Ireland by the end of 2016 to protect their status in a post-Brexit Europe, figures from Dublin have revealed. The Law Society of Ireland said there were few signs at the moment of any of them taking out practising certificates or their firms opening offices in the country.

A male solicitor has been found guilty of discussing with a vulnerable female client a third his age that she might make good an unpaid bill with a topless photo shoot and possibly sexual activity. He was also found to have watched pornography in his office with her.

The founders of an alternative business structure which helps insolvency practitioners to process mis-selling claims against financial institutions have now launched a litigation fund. It is being bankrolled by Steve Clark, founder of investment management company Omni Partners.

A central London law firm has launched a fixed-fee family arbitration service in a bid to slash what it says is now an average £70,000 cost for divorcing people to reach a financial settlement. It comes as research shows those who have been through a divorce are less likely than the average to see lawyers as truthful.

The BBC has undermined a Law Society call to trial online convictions with cases of TV licensing evasion, after the broadcaster highlighted flaws in its argument. The society has recommended trying out online convictiosn in summary-only, non-imprisonable offences with TV licence evasion.

Law firms are unnecessarily afraid of operating on fixed fees, and need to take a more commercial approach to how they market and price their services, according to the solicitor who created The Law Superstore. He said he had also found that firms do not monitor how much work their marketing generates.

A model of training barristers that would split the Bar professional training course into two – allowing students to learn procedure and evidence however they want before undergoing compulsory skills training – has been put forward by the Bar Council and Council of the Inns of Court as an alternative to the regulator’s plans for training reform.

National Accident Helpline is to invest £1.7m over the next year so as to accelerate changes to its operating model that will enable it to respond to the government’s proposed personal injury reforms. NAH’s profits will be hit in the short term and its share price took a significant hit as a result.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has spelt out to MPs the many risks of Brexit to the legal market – to clients, solicitors, law firms, foreign lawyers, the UK as a legal centre and the cause of liberalisation generally. The regulator said this strengthened the case for regulatory reform.