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A former partner in a criminal law firm has described how he deliberately broke professional rules to get a murderer convicted. Steve Chittenden said: “The dilemma is between the rules and natural justice.”

The claimant groups planning to fight the government’s latest personal injury (PI) reforms have learnt from what happened with LASPO and are working together to ensure they have “a unified voice and message”, it has emerged. The Law Society, APIL and MASS have also set up a fighting fund.

A claims management company which made 40m nuisance calls in only three months has had its license revoked by the Claims Management Regulator. Kevin Rousell, head of the CMR, said the firm “demonstrated the worst excesses” of the industry.

Co-operative Legal Services is making a significant investment in face-to-face advice for the first time after acquiring a wills, trust and probate company. It is further evidence that, despite changes in the wider group following its well-publicised troubles, legal services remains a core service.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has voiced “serious doubts” over whether a solicitor, aged 79 and “with almost 50 years of exemplary service”, should have been referred to it for prosecution. Reginald Hemmings told the tribunal he found the experience “extremely distressing”.

NAHL Group – the listed business that owns National Accident Helpline – has grown its footprint in the conveyancing market with the acquisition of a property search company. It is paying £2m for Searches UK, with £1.66 up front and a further £350,000 payable on or before 30 June.

The High Court has found a Newcastle law firm’s conduct an abuse of process after it repeatedly failed to pay the proper court fees when it issued claims. As a result, some of the professional negligence cases it was pursuing against another firm were time-barred.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to research this year whether standards of criminal advocacy are declining and whether solicitors are to blame. As part of the research, the SRA said it would ask judges whether solicitor-advocates were “working beyond their level of competence”.

Listed UK businesses with a strong legal element have proven good investments over the past year, outperforming the FTSE indicies, a Legal Futures analysis has shown. While both the FTSE 100 and FTSE All-Share indicies fell during 2015, almost all law-related shares were up – some spectacularly so.

A Midlands law firm making a claim for fees against former husband-and-wife clients has successfully applied for their £2.6m negligence counterclaim to be struck out. The court emphasised that a breach of fiduciary duty by a solicitor does not necessarily mean their entitlement to be paid is forfeited.