Practice Management

Two separate alternative business structures specialising in commercial contracts went live today – each offering clients a non-traditional alternative to corporate law firms. Wavelength.law makes sophisticated use of new technology, while Ember Contract Solutions is part of a management consultancy.

A Yorkshire solicitor has launched a website to help small businesses and consumers obtain fixed price unbundled advice. James Martin, founder and director of ClaimItOnline, launched today, said the website was particularly aimed at small businesses with disputes worth up to £50,000.

The new Online Court will not “ban lawyers” and there will be “a very limited element of fixed costs” so litigants can get initial legal advice, Lord Justice Briggs has said. He said the top limit for claims in the Online Court “may have to start at £10,000”, rather than £25,000.

Only a tiny number of law firms follow up enquiries from potential clients after making initial contact with them, ‘mystery shopper’ research has found. And even that initial contact is often too slow in a world where ever-more rapid responses are expected.

Regulation of lawyers across the developed world is under pressure from technological and other disruptions, and national competition authorities should seize the opportunity to guarantee market access for new entrants, the OECD has advised.

A claims management company that made 17.5m automated calls over just six months, asking people if they had suffered hearing loss at work, has been fined £250,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Free2Convey, the conveyancing portal designed as a free rival to the Law Society’s failed portal Veyo, is to relaunch itself to conveyancers, estate agents and the public “within weeks”, it has emerged. Matt Lancaster, who has led work on the portal, said he hoped it would be used by most conveyancing firms by the end of this year.

A legal rating and review website, set up last autumn by the former chief operating officer of QualitySolicitors, is to launch a crowdfunding bid next month targeting law firms. ReviewSolicitors wants to raise at least £150,000 from 50 law firms.

ROSS Intelligence, the artificial intelligence legal research technology built on IBM’s Watson cognitive computer, has announced its first commercial partnership with one of the largest law firms in the US.

There is a “climate of renewed vulnerability” among smaller law firms, with the vast majority of lawyers believing there are “still rough times ahead”, a report has found. The report also revealed a huge gulf between lawyer and client perceptions of value.