Practice Management

E-mail hacks of conveyancing transactions are the most common cybercrime in the legal sector, with £7m of client losses reported in the last year, according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It said that three-quarters of cybercrimes reported to the SRA in the 12 months are some form of ‘Friday afternoon’ fraud.

The government yesterday began laying the ground for the online resolution of certain employment disputes, in the first sector-specific example of plans to transform the justice system. It also set out greater uses of case officers among other recommendations of Lord Justice Briggs that are being adopted.

The BBC has undermined a Law Society call to trial online convictions with cases of TV licensing evasion, after the broadcaster highlighted flaws in its argument. The society has recommended trying out online convictiosn in summary-only, non-imprisonable offences with TV licence evasion.

US legal technology giant LegalZoom has launched its first product since entering the UK market, a ‘digital will’ that it says will “revolutionise the way we think about and plan for our loved ones after our death”. The app enables users to make their will on their phone, and build a “digital scrapbook” to pass on along too.

The Society of Will Writers has launched a blunt campaign to encourage people to make a will, entitled ‘No will equals poo’. The visual featuring the poo emoji is accompanied by a short YouTube video that asks: “Do you want to be remembered only for the mess you leave behind?”

A solicitor whose law firm partner has gone to jail for four years for mortgage fraud has lost her bid to have the £4.65m losses being sought from her covered by the firm’s professional indemnity insurer, even though she was not alleged to have had any personal involvement in the frauds.

Divorce pioneers Amicable Apps have launched a ground-breaking advice service to complement the launch of the final version of their app. Clients who want more help in handling their divorce than the app can provide are directed to ‘divorce coaches’, who could be non-practising lawyers but may have no legal training at all.

The technology behind an artificial intelligence app created to help businesspeople draft confidentiality agreements will be extended to other commercial and consumer products such as wills, and may in time be suitable for in family law cases, according to its creator.

In the first of a new series of features profiling lawtech start-ups, we investigate Weclaim.com, a business working to use technology to automate small claims on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, and eventually expects claims to be resolved without human involvement.

The government should pilot its plans to digitise low-level summary convictions with TV licence evasion, rather than train and tram fare evasion, the Law Society has said. It also opposed piloting the online system on statutory fixed fines for low-level anti-social and nuisance offending.