Legal Services Act

The legal regulatory system is “defective” and in time it might be right for a single regulator to replace the eight frontline regulators, the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Charles Plant, told yesterday’s Legal Futures Conference.

A groundbreaking assessment of the progress in delivering the legal services reforms from a consumer perspective is the centrepiece of the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s plan for the forthcoming year, delegates at today’s Legal Futures Conference will hear. The idea of a “single regulatory badge” will also be floated, along with good practice standards for legal comparison websites

As the interest of law firms in external investment goes up, “the interest of funders seems to be firmly in decline”, a new alternative business structures consultancy has found. A survey of 51 of the top 200 law firms by ABS Advisory Partners found that 12% thought it “very likely” or “likely” that they will seek direct external investment.

Dragon’s Den stars Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden are backing a major online initiative to provide small business customers of RBS and NatWest with all the online tools they need to run their operations, including legal services.

National law firm network QualitySolicitors has signed a “game changing” deal with WHSmith to place “Legal Access Points” in hundreds of the high street retailer’s stores following a successful pilot. All QS firms will also soon start opening on Saturdays and introduce a wide range of fixed-fee services.

The battle over whether the Legal Services Board, its consumer panel and the Legal Ombudsman can retain their own websites continues, with the sites not closing at the end of last month as the Ministry of Justice had originally instructed.

The American Bar Association tonight floated the prospect of allowing limited forms of alternative business structures in the US. However, it has ruled out passive non-lawyer investment, laying out options which only involve non-lawyers actively contributing to a practice.

A memorandum of understanding between legal regulators and regulators and professional bodies in the financial, accountancy and property worlds whose members may be part of multi-disciplinary practices is close to agreement, it has emerged.

The Legal Services Board is to launch an assessment of the regulation of immigration advice and services after taking over responsibility for overseeing frontline regulators in the field. The move will save the profession £110,000 in direct costs.

A network that aims to help law firms dominate their local market and guarantees that it will increase their income has gone live. Seven law firms have so far signed up to GetSolicitors, which is billing itself as an alternative to national, branded networks by giving solicitors the tools to market and build their own brands.

The number of law firms in England and Wales has continued its inexorable rise, with 25% more in practice than a decade before, new figures have revealed. The Law Society’s annual statistical report also shows the impact of the recession on the largest City practices.

A Yorkshire firm of solicitors has launched a menu pricing litigation product under which it will shoulder the risk of costs overruns, giving clients budgeting certainty as an alternative to conditional fee agreements. The move is an early example of litigation specialists positioning themselves for a post-Jackson, post-recoverability of costs landscape.

Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) continues to grow strongly, with income up nearly 20% in 2010, the Co-operative Group’s annual results have shown. Meanwhile, a spokesman has confirmed that CLS will apply for an alternative business structure licence at the earliest opportunity.

The board of the Legal Ombudsman has put off until spring 2012 the decision on whether to name law firms on the receiving end of complaints, a move condemned by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

David Edmonds was today reappointed as chairman of Legal Services Board for a second three-year term. Mr Edmonds, who is paid £63,000 a year for a minimum of 70 days’ work, will now be in post until 30 April 2014.