Practice Management

The court system is on the verge of a “profound revolution” as technology sweeps away the old way of conducting litigation of all types, Sir Brian Leveson said yesterday, including dealing with lower-level criminal cases entirely online.

The Bar Council has joined forces with the two Preston-based barristers behind the Direct Access Portal to relaunch it as the “go-to website” for consumers looking for a barrister. The portal will replace the Bar Council’s existing direct access register.

Consumers are being misled by dubious practices in online reviews and endorsements, while more than half of buyers of services are swayed by them, according to an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.

An American celebrity attorney who acted for Michael Jackson has lost a High Court battle with Barclays Bank over a $540,000 loan relating to his time as partner in failed US firm Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Lauren Riley, a solicitor entrepreneur who appeared on ‘The Apprentice’, is launching a bid next week to raise £150,000 for her legal app through crowdfunding. She said about 80 small and medium-sized law firms had registered an interest in the product.

HM Revenue & Customs has given solicitors a week to pay the tax they owe on undeclared income or “face hefty penalties” of 100% on the unpaid tax and the risk of a criminal investigation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has begun work on developing a “centralised assessment of competence” that potential solicitors would have to pass to qualify, it has emerged. It comes as Mayer Brown became the first City law firm to unveil a six-year ‘articled apprenticeship’ programme.

A new video platform has been hailed as the “missing link” in improving the ability of direct access barristers to attract more clients. Virtual chambers ShenSmith has been trialling ODRO Vision.

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest conveyancing firm, myhomemove, has predicted that Veyo, the online portal launched yesterday by the Law Society and Mastek, “will fail”. Doug Crawford was unveiling a new version of myhomemove’s eWay.

Veyo, the online conveyancing portal developed by the Law Society and IT giant Mastek, went live today with around 80 law firms taking part in the first phase. A much larger group of 1,800 firms which expressed an interest in the system will be able to join shortly.