Legal Services Act

The personal injury reforms (PI) first announced 10 months ago are still coming, despite the Brexit hiatus – so claimant lawyers have to be prepared, they were told at last week’s PI Futures conference in Liverpool. The default assumption had to be that change would happen.

The Legal Services Board has reacted angrily to a draft report from the International Bar Association which said the oversight regulator was subject to “a degree of government control”, because “the LSB is funded by the Ministry of Justice, and all its members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor”.

Profit is continuing to rise at Co-operative Legal Services (CLS), half-year results published today have revealed. In the first six months of 2016, sales rose 10% to £11m, and it made a £1m profit – having broken even during the same period of 2015.

Saga, the over-50s insurance and travel company, has closed its legal services business, Legal Futures can reveal – but said it may yet return to the market in future. The company was hit by the collapse last year of Parabis, with which it had set up a joint venture alternative business structure, Saga Law, in late 2013.

NAHL Group plc – the AIM-listed legal marketing and services business that owns National Accident Helpline – expects to play a “more pro-active role in the entire conduct and financing of a PI case” following the government’s next round of reforms, it told the stock exchange today.

Regional law firms have a much more positive view of the impact of alternative business structures (ABSs) and other regulatory changes than City firms, a survey has found. It said 45% of regional firms described ABSs as having a positive impact on their practices, compared to only 18% of City firms.

A third of senior managers at law firms expect private equity to be an important source of funding in the next few years, a survey has found. A quarter also believed that other financial investors, including high net-worth individuals or family offices, will play a key role.

Slater & Gordon has announced that it is taking legal action against Watchstone Group – formerly Quindell – over its £637m purchase of Quindell’s professional services division last year. At the start of 2016 S&G unveiled a massive write-down of goodwill arising from the acquisition.

Listed law firm Gateley has continued its acquisition of complementary businesses by spending up to £2m to buy a firm of surveyors that will work alongside its property practice. Hamer Associates specialises in easements and wayleaves, and compulsory purchase and compensation.

It would be less stressful and less expensive for clients to use their accountants for probate work than solicitors, one of the leading accountancy bodies has claimed. Meanwhile, the head of an accountancy ABS said it made “little sense” for lawyers to handle uncontested probate work.

The transformation of AIM-listed Fairpoint Group into a legal services business continued apace in the first six months of 2016, its half-year results showed yesterday. Revenue increased by 24% to £28.3m in the period, of which £21.5m was from legal services, nearly twice as much as a year before. Profits were steady at £4m.

The changing legal market means that anybody offering legal services – including unregulated providers – should have to offer some kind of access to the Legal Ombudsman, the chief ombudsman has said. Kathryn Stone said this would be “a much more coherent way for us to provide our service”.

Lawyers need to embrace innovation to find new ways of delivering services and simplifying working practices, the government and senior judiciary said today as they unveiled their vision for the digital transformation of the justice system. The £1bn plan includes the prospect of people being convicted online for minor offences, and plans for fixed fees across as much of the civil system as possible.

Reactions from key legal services industry bodies to the Legal Services Board’s blueprint for radical form of legal regulation have ranged from enthusiastic welcome to anger at its timing, while the politician who introduced the Legal Services Act 2007 said tackling unmet legal need was more of a priority.

One of the first local authority alternative business structures is projected to increase its turnover 30% over the next year, and has already cut the fee rates for its shareholder clients by 20%, it revealed yesterday. LGSS Law is now also advising more than 100 client organisations within the public and not-for-profit sectors.