Latest news

Slater & Gordon’s shares collapsed by 25% today after it confirmed that its audit process was under scrutiny by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and that it had made errors in the accounts for its UK arm.

A retired solicitor has been made subject to a maximum 15-year bankruptcy restriction order for misappropriating funds from his clients’ accounts, overcharging clients and falsifying his records to cover up his actions. Meanwhile, a solicitor from Essex has been disqualified as a director for five years.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to continue regulating most consumer credit activities carried out by law firms after new proposals were issued last week. A consultation said solicitors would be able to carry out mainstream consumer credit activities as long as they are central to the legal services they provide.

Slater & Gordon has fought back hard against continuing questions about its £637m acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division – which have hit its share price – revealing it expects PSD to handle 95,000 road traffic cases next year. It said there have been “no material negative surprises” since formally taking over last month.

The barrister acting for shareholders suing RBS and Tesco has been appointed as lead counsel for the potential group action being brought against Quindell. Your Legal Friend – the consumer brand of Liverpool firm Camps – has already registered more than 500 shareholders interested in joining the action

Clerksroom Direct, the online service matching direct access barristers to members of the public, has had 170 approaches so far this month, with half converting to paid work at higher average rates than expected, it has emerged.

Solicitors running two firms caught out by changes to the indemnity insurance rules and the closure of the assigned risks pool in 2012-13 have been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for failing to wind-down their practices in an orderly manner.

A YouTube video of an angry man slicing household goods and a car in half in response to separating from his wife – which has been viewed more than six million times and been covered by media outlets across the world as he sought to sell his share on eBay – has been revealed as a stunt by lawyers.

The court system is on the verge of a “profound revolution” as technology sweeps away the old way of conducting litigation of all types, Sir Brian Leveson said yesterday, including dealing with lower-level criminal cases entirely online.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is finally set to go ahead after the Supreme Court ruled that it was “the only way” to protect all members of the public involved in criminal proceedings “at an upper level”. But it has been claimed that the decision will make it harder for similar schemes to be introduced for other areas of law.