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The Ministry of Justice announced today that it is to press ahead with radical personal injury reforms aimed at curbing a “rampant compensation culture” – including raising the small claims limit and scrapping or capping general damages. But with the detail still to be unveiled, they appear also to go further than expected.

More serious criminal defence work should be restricted to barristers, and solicitor-advocates who want to do it should have to requalify, the former Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove, has suggested. He also called for a “higher-quality filter” for those wanting to become barristers and reiterated his support for a levy on City law firms to aid those less fortunate.

Today’s announcement of government plans to reform personal injury claims has predictably split the market, with claimant representatives incensed and defendants pleased. Claimant lawyers accused the government of having been bullied by the insurance industry.

Privately educated people still dominate the legal profession, with barriers to entry for those from less affluent backgrounds are even more acute at the Bar than among solicitors, the Social Mobility Commission said yesterday.

A solicitor who has failed to comply with a decision of the Legal Ombudsman and then a court order enforcing it is facing jail after she did not show up at the committal hearing. She has been given one final chance to explain herself or go to prison for 14 days.

The University of Law is to stop claiming that it is the “leading” law school in the UK in the wake of a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority. The watchdog upheld a complaint about an advert published by ULaw after finding the evidence supplied by the university incompatible with such a claim.

Black and minority ethnic (BME) consumers of legal services are getting a “raw deal” when choosing and using legal services, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel, after its research showed levels of trust, loyalty and satisfaction lower among BME groups that white British consumers.

An insurance claims handler who admitted to illegally passing on customer details to a law firm and adding friends and family to genuine claims has been ordered to pay back £37,000 by Liverpool Crown Court at a confiscation hearing or face an extended jail term.

An alternative business structure specialising in alternative investments has acquired two non-legal businesses as part of its strategy to become “the pre-eminent advisory and infrastructure business in alternative assets”. Our round-up includes news from Gateley, Triton Global, Callan Legal, Fletchers, Dezrezlegal and Knights.

The High Court has given the green light to a solicitor to pursue claims against the Crown Prosecution Service and South Wales Police for malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office. He argues that they engaged in an improper operation designed to prevent him practising as a solicitor.