Legal Services Act

A novel online family law service that uses experienced lawyers to mentor and manage clients through the legal process has gone live. Family Law Café is the brainchild of Joanna Toch, a barrister at Church Court Chambers in London, and she has secured financial backing from private individuals, including corporate lawyers.

The QualitySolicitors network is to enter a three-month trial to supply legal services to retail chain Nisa, as it pushes to exploit its national network. Nisa is the UK’s leading member-owned organisation, providing benefits to 1,300 independent food and drink markets.

One of the country’s largest personal injury practices has highlighted the benefits of being an alternative business structure owned by a large business after the write-off of a multi-million pound inter-company loan, and an £11m cash injection, helped it turn a huge loss into a profit in its last financial year.

A former chief executive of Natural England is to take over as interim chairman of the Legal Services Board next week after Sir Michael Pitt’s term comes to an end without the recruitment exercise for his successor having even begun.

The Legal Ombudsman has pledged to avoid pursuing an “expansionist” strategy when considering expanding its jurisdiction, but nevertheless welcomed the Competition and Markets Authority’s suggestion that it could handle complaints against unregulated legal providers.

The Legal Services Board has said it expects frontline regulators to introduce compulsory “minimum disclosures” by law firms on price and service. The LSB was responding to the Competition and Market Authority market study of legal services.

A chartered legal executive has launched a start-up alternative business structure specialising in personal injury but with ambitious plans for expansion into a variety of legal areas, including sports law.

A local authority in Surrey is eyeing up an alternative business structure so it can “commercialise” its legal services in the wake of a partnership with another council coming to an end. Our latest ABS round-up also includes a virtual firm looking for investment to expand, a major deal for a leading probate ABS and a heavyweight appointment.

The Legal Services Board has persuaded all the legal regulators to produce straightforward annual statements on their costs so that practitioners can clearly see how their money is being spent, it has emerged. As a result, the LSB has shut down its cost of regulation project and publish its own statement of costs.

The Legal Ombudsman’s budget is set to rise for the first time since its creation – by £1m – with claims management companies not paying the case fees they have been charged the key cause and more expected to follow as they continue to go out of business.