Legal Services Act

The Legal Services Board has criticised the Bar Standards Board’s failure to apply the cab-rank rule to public access work and said this omission will reduce the impact of rule changes that widen the scope for barristers dealing directly with clients.

Barristers’ bid to persuade consumers to come direct to them for legal advice has stepped up with a new direct access service claiming that more than half of Britons think solicitors overcharge. Absolute Barrister claims to be able to halve the cost of some legal matters.

The financial difficulties facing many law firms offers a real opportunity for growth, AIM-listed alternative business structure (ABS) Abbey Protection has claimed. It announced a 7% rise in turnover in 2012 to £38.7m and 3% increase in profits to £10.3m.

A sole practitioner has launched a business offering a range of unbundled legal services at fixed fees, including consultations via Skype for people who need help conducting their own cases. iSolictor UK offers a web ‘shop’ with a menu of fixed-fee services, run by a team of freelance lawyers.

A company that provides both claims management services and legal expenses insurance has joined forces with a law firm in an alternative business structure that needed a waiver to allow a 27-year-old solicitor to be its head of legal practice. It was one of two newly licensed CMCs.

The prospect of chartered legal executives setting up their own law firms moved closer to reality yesterday after their regulator submitted an application for the full range of independent practice rights. It has won immediate support from a Conservative MP.

Two niche law firms have outlined their hopes for expansion after receiving their alternative business structure licences from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. One specialises in family law – and owns the divorcesolicitor.com domain – and the other operates in health care.

The trend towards ‘unbundling’ legal services is gathering pace, with a Yorkshire law firm launching a ‘Pay as You Go’ service for family law clients who will no longer be eligible for legal aid after 1 April.

The biggest brand name to enter legal services and one of the country’s first alternative business structures, Co-operative Legal Services, has announced strong revenue growth for 2012. It would place CLS at 76th in The Lawyer magazine’s table of the top 100 law firms by turnover.

Banning referral fees in personal injury may have unintended consequences that will be worse than the current situation, Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds told MPs yesterday. He also said the current regulatory regime could move rapidly to a single over-arching regulator.