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A UK-based litigation funder is to back a shareholder class action against Slater & Gordon as its share price continues to tank following Monday’s announcement of huge losses. Having started the week at 83c, the embattled firm saw its shares finish trading on the Australian Stock Exchange today at just 26c, their lowest ever point.

A solicitor has been convicted of helping launder money on behalf of a man who claimed to be Pope Francis’s banker as part of a massive scam. Buddika Kadurugamuwa will be sentenced later this week after being found guilty of one count of transferring criminal property.

A sole practitioner who overcharged by 500% for private client work has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The SDT also found that Premji Naran Patel was “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by improperly moving money between different client accounts.

Online divorce and probate are set to be delivered under the courts modernisation programme by early 2017, the president of the Family Division has said. Sir James Munby also called on family barristers to adopt new working practices, including direct access, unbundling and fixed fees.

The UK is in the sights of a Canadian company that has developed an app aimed at simplifying the divorce process for self-represented couples, including automated completion of divorce application forms and the documents needed to make a separation agreement.

The London Litigation Solicitors Association and the Law Society are pushing for a lower £10,000 limit for cases in the Online Court. In his interim report, Lord Justice Briggs proposed a limit of £25,000. The LSLA said that there should be fixed or capped costs for litigation between £10,000 and £25,000.

Slater & Gordon is to conduct a major restructuring of its UK operation – with office closures and redundancies on the cards – after it unveiled an eye-watering loss of £493m for the six months ending 31 December 2015. The loss was mainly attributable to a write-down of goodwill arising from its acquisition of Quindell, but also underperformance of the entire UK operation.

The Ministry of Justice has given its strongest indication yet that, once the legal regulators become independent, lawyers will no longer be compelled to make a financial contribution to their representative bodies.

A solicitor who “exploited” a criminal client who he met in a pub by acting as advocate without authorisation and demanding a £65,000 loan has been struck off. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Stephen Paul Kettlewell failed to repay the loan.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has asked the House of Commons’ justice select committee to assume responsibility for holding it to account once independence from the Law Society has been achieved.