Practice points

A damning report into legal technology and access to justice has found the advice sector beset by confusion and fragmentation, with most innovation taking place in the commercial part of the profession.

City law firm Travers Smith is giving away free of charge home-grown email management software in the hope of to stimulating greater co-operation between firms.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service has made “good progress” in transforming some services, but there are still “significant challenges” ahead for the court modernisation programme, the NAO said today.

Big Four accountant Deloitte has launched a pioneering three-year training contract, allowing trainees to study at the University of Law for one day a week and work the remaining four.

There is a “fundamental disconnect” among solicitors between the skills they think they need and the ones they actually need, new research has suggested.

The “hackers, hustlers and hipsters” of legal tech hackathons are “not enough” to solve the “intractable problems” of access to justice, a leading legal researcher has argued.

Barristers will be able to make anonymous reports of bullying and harassment by their colleagues and judges after the Bar Council signed up to an online tool to aid the profession.

The government has provided an extra £250,000 in funding for the Legal Access Challenge to double the number of finalists in and winners of the competition.

The Law Commission has paved the way for video witnessing of deeds by calling on the government to set up an industry working group which could consider the matter.

A solicitor who resigned without notice was in breach of contract, an employment tribunal has ruled after finding that it was not a case of constructive dismissal.