Market monitor

Co-operative Legal Services is making a significant investment in face-to-face advice for the first time after acquiring a wills, trust and probate company. It is further evidence that, despite changes in the wider group following its well-publicised troubles, legal services remains a core service.

NAHL Group – the listed business that owns National Accident Helpline – has grown its footprint in the conveyancing market with the acquisition of a property search company. It is paying £2m for Searches UK, with £1.66 up front and a further £350,000 payable on or before 30 June.

Listed UK businesses with a strong legal element have proven good investments over the past year, outperforming the FTSE indicies, a Legal Futures analysis has shown. While both the FTSE 100 and FTSE All-Share indicies fell during 2015, almost all law-related shares were up – some spectacularly so.

The number of complaints to the Legal Ombudsman about claims management companies is gathering pace and passed 15,000 in the first nine months of 2015, it has emerged. LeO said almost half of the complaints were about fees.

LV= has created its legal offering to offer an extra service to its members and customers, rather than to make any great profit, its claims director has told Legal Futures. The new venture is not an alternative business structure, unlike all the other such arrangements between insurers and law firms.

LV= has become the latest major insurer to enter the legal services market after forming a joint venture with Bristol-based Lyons Davidson. LV= Legal Services is offering fixed-fee advice for wills, powers of attorney, probate, conveyancing, personal injury and employment law.

Personal injury firm Asons has suspended building work on an “iconic” £8m new office in Bolton and announced a restructuring programme in response to chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement. The firm said it wanted to focus on “shoring up its defences”.

The finance directors of large law firms prefer to stick with more traditional forms of funding for their practices that do not involve accepting external investment, new research has indicated.

Slater & Gordon has withdrawn its predictions for the current financial year, saying profit is likely to be hit as a result of “slower than expected” case settlements in the UK. The problems are in the main S&G practice, along with the noise-induced hearing loss portfolio bought by the firm from Quindell.

Shareholders in Gateley – the first UK law firm to float – are to see the first fruits of their investment after the company announced an initial dividend on the back of strong first-half results. Gateley’s revenue for the six months to 31 October was up 10.9% to £29.6m, with profit before tax rising 11.5% to £2.9m.

A pioneering online legal business aimed at SMEs has obtained an alternative business structure licence to reassure clients nervous of engaging with internet-based legal advice services that it is also a regulated law firm.

US online legal services provider LegalZoom has made its much-anticipated move in the UK, announcing today that it is to acquire Yorkshire firm Beaumont Legal for its 2016 launch, with more deals potentially to come.

Slater & Gordon’s share price has bounced back after last week’s precipitous plunge following the Autumn Statement, with the law firm predicting that the reforms outlined by Chancellor George Osborne would not have a “material impact” on its core business.

Slater & Gordon’s share price continued to tumble in the wake of the Autumn Statement, with another 27% wiped off their value overnight, while National Accident Helpline has also taken a big hit on AIM. The two listed UK alternative business structures with exposure to personal injury have fallen as well – albeit less precipitously.

The abolition of general damages for all low-value whiplash claims will not come into force until April 2017, it has emerged – giving the personal injury market more time to adapt than expected. Law firms have also been urged to start planning for the changes, with some likely to close as a result.