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The written advocacy of continental European lawyers makes for “boring” court proceedings, according to the President of the Supreme Court. Lord Neuberger also said that well-paid advocates representing the rich had a responsibility to ensure access to justice for the poor.

The flexible benefits scheme that saw Legal Ombudsman staff effectively paid hundreds of thousands of pounds on top of their salaries in the organisation’s first six years – until the government deemed the payments to be irregular – has been scrapped.

A solicitor who failed to report “serious misconduct” by other members of staff at former Yorkshire firm Legal Development Partners has been fined £2,000. He admitted that he had also allowed his independence to be compromised by allowing “unqualified third parties” to control and influence the firm.

The conveyancers on both sides of a property fraud have been found jointly liable for the £470,000 loss suffered by the buyer. The ruling of His Honour Judge Pelling QC, sitting as a High Court judge, is the first authority on the obligations owed by a seller’s solicitor to a purchaser.

A coalition of leading claimant solicitors, charities and others in the personal injury market have come together to fight the government’s whiplash reforms – and is calling on the 2,700 PI firms in England and Wales to back the cause. It is promising a “properly funded, co-ordinated and directed strategic campaign”.

A training provider is suing the Law Society for “six-figure damages” over its claim that Chancery Lane is acting anti-competitively by requiring law firms to buy its training in order to maintain their Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor convicted of a serious offence after he was allowed to continue in practice following two previous appearances before the tribunal for accounts rules breaches. It conceded that a warning given on his second SDT appearance had been ineffective.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court ruling that had protected law firms from financial risk through restricting the way professional indemnity insurers could aggregate multiple claims. However, the case is not over as it has been sent for retrial.

Law firm network QualitySolicitors yesterday announced a greater focus on lead conversion, along with a change in leadership to drive it. CEO Eddie Ross is to leave next month and be replaced by Ben Greco, managing director of property services firm Move with Us.

A direct access service providing the public and businesses with fixed-fee unbundled access to barristers, claims to have doubled its turnover in each of the last two years and expects to grow next year. Absolute Barrister has also designed what it says is the first case management system for direct access work.