Legal Services Act

Fewer than half of the current number of residential conveyancing specialist firms will be in business within three years and probably just one in ten, according to the entrepreneur who founded the UK’s most successful property website.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson has responded to calls for all advocates – including solicitors – to be regulated by the Bar Standards Board by saying: “Are they having a laugh?” And SAHCA chief says QASA and ABSs give solicitor-advocates a “golden opportunity” to compete with barristers.

Simplify the Law – a law firm franchise concept which launched last year – has reinvented itself as an online legal service that aims to help commercial lawyers repel new competition in the market, Legal Futures can report.

The Ministry of Justice has thrown cold water on the Bar Council’s call to abolish the Legal Services Board (LSB). On Saturday, Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC said the new Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, was sympathetic to concerns that the legal profession is over-regulated.

Two south-east conveyancing businesses owned by estate agents have become the newest alternative business structure (ABS), meaning that more than 50 licences have now been issued by the two ABS regulators.

The new Lord Chancellor has said he is “sympathetic” with the notion that the legal profession is over-regulated, the chairman of the Bar Council has claimed as he stepped up his call for the Legal Services Board to be scrapped.

Joint ventures between solicitors and insurance companies as alternative business structures which enables insurers to take in income what they would have received in referral fees will not be caught by the upcoming ban, the Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed last week.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is under pressure to extend its April 2013 deadline for legal disciplinary partnerships with non-lawyer partners to become alternative business structures, after the Legal Services Board said it was “unlikely” to insist on it before 2014.

Inaccurate statistics published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over the past six months have painted a worse picture of its handling of alternative business structure applications than the reality, it has emerged. However, there are still around 150 applications in the system.

The regulation of will-writing and estate administration needs to be drawn widely to ensure that the referral fee culture that has prevailed in personal injury does not emerge in private client work, the Law Society has warned.

The Legal Ombudsman will not allow third parties to bring complaints against lawyers for the time being, Legal Futures has learned. However, it will in future accept complaints from prospective clients, while the limit for compensation will rise from £30,000 to £50,000

Just three alternative business structure applicants made it through to the decision phase over the past six months, with 167 still going through the application process, new figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority have shown.

The Bar Council has issued a sharp rebuke to the Legal Services Board for criticising how it is approaching the legal services reforms, saying that while “our regulators talk about key performance indicators, we talk about the interests of justice”.

More than half of conveyancing firms are open to becoming alternative business structures, even though few believe they will improve services for clients. They are also more worried about lenders’ panel selection decisions than new competition.

The company that says it was the first in the UK to provide free online legal advice for both businesses and consumers is to launch its first law firm panel for referrals – although it will not charge for them.