Legal Services Act

Countrywide plc has reported a “promising first half trading performance” for its conveyancing division, with income up 4% and earnings 12%. Countrywide Property Lawyers is an alternative business structure regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

There are signs of the Solicitors Regulation Authority relaxing its strict interpretation of a key rule which may be “dampening” innovation and new entrants to the market, according to the Legal Services Board.

The Legal Services Board is weighing up whether to launch a formal investigation into the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority is handling alternative business structure applications, Legal Futures can reveal.

Liverpool-based SGI Legal has set its sights on reshaping the way personal injury law firms operate having received its alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Legal Services Board’s initial probe into the independent regulation of barristers uncovered “a number of concerns about the Bar Council’s and the Bar Standards Board’s behaviour at both junior and senior executive as well as board level”, it has emerged.

Lawyers needs to improve their interpersonal skills, be patient, respectful and remove jargon to provide disabled clients with a better legal service, research has claimed. More also needs to be done to advertise legal services to people with learning disabilities.

An online dispute resolution business that spun out of eBay is heading to the UK after receiving a $5m cash injection from venture capitalists. Modria is setting up its European operation in the UK, where it will be headed by solicitor Graham Ross.

MPs have attacked insurance companies for not being more transparent over the referral fees they receive from a range of sources. The transport select committee said “the motor insurance sector remains as opaque as ever”.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has today begun a debate over whether its remit should be widened to capture complaints against the 130,000 unregulated providers who deliver legal services. It has also raised the prospect of becoming the complaints body for a wide range of professionals.

Knights Solicitors – the Staffordshire law firm backed by former Dragon James Caan – has pledged to make further acquisitions after buying the Chester office of Hill Dickinson.

There is “sufficient consistency of evidence and concern” about the standard of criminal advocacy to warrant the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Legal Services Board concluded today.

Alternative business structures may be bad for traditional law firms, but they will have a positive impact on clients, a snapshot survey of small firms has found. This is despite the belief that new entrants will not provide the same quality or ethical standards as traditional practices.

Well-known legal expenses insurer ULR Additions has won approval to set up an alternative business structure. However, the license from the Solicitors Regulation Authority restricts the work LEI Legal Services Ltd can undertake.

The Legal Services Board fears a successful legal challenge should it accept the compromise aimed at resolving the impasse over moving the handling of complaints about claims management companies to the Legal Ombudsman, Legal Futures has learned.

The future of the cab-rank rule is still up for debate despite approval of the new Bar Standards Board code of conduct, which includes it, the Legal Services Board has warned. The BSB is also set to raise the issue of a cab-rank rule for solicitors, it has emerged.