Record results for Redde as it takes full ownership of its second ABS
Redde plc – the AIM-listed accident management company that owns two law firms, announced record results yesterday, and also that it has taken full ownership of the smaller of its alternative business structures. Turnover grew 53% to £379m, with profit before tax up a similar amount to £34.6m.
SDT strikes off solicitor who denied receiving money from third party
A solicitor has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after dishonestly misleading a client that her firm had not received an expected £10,000 from a third party. She later repaid the amount from another client’s account without permission, and falsely claimed she had issued and conducted court proceedings on his behalf when she had not.
Judge sacked for viewing porn at work accepts SRA rebuke as others also strike deals with regulator
All four of the judges named by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office last year after being found to have watched pornography on judicial IT equipment have now been rebuked after the final one accepted his sanction. Two other agreements with a solicitor who moved money from client to office account, and a PI law firm, have also been published.
Niche ABS goes public ahead of market listing “in three or four years”
A niche health and social care alternative business structure has incorporated as a public limited company as a prelude to a future expansion and stock exchange listing. Ridouts Solicitors has no immediate plans to become a listed company but was getting it “ducks in a row” so as to be ready for when it happens.
SRA considers publishing firms’ complaints and claims records as quality indicators
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is considering whether to make data on complaints and insurance claims against law firms available to consumers as “possible indicators of quality”, it has revealed. It may also introduce logos to denote to consumers that firms are regulated and covered by the SRA’s compensation fund.
QC forms his own law firm to “modernise access to barrister services”
A leading white collar crime barrister said this week that he may conduct straightforward litigation through his new Bar Standards Board-authorised entity. Bright Line Law, launched this week, is the brainchild of Jonathan Fisher QC and was devised in part as an attempt to bring together the various strands of his activities.
Exclusive: Kent Legal Services chief lays out blueprint for ABS
The move to move Kent County Council’s legal team into an alternative business structure (ABS) is now well underway, with a white-label service to private law firms for routine work likely to be part of its offering, Legal Futures can reveal.
Scots seek freedom for their notaries in England and Wales
The failure to give Scottish notaries public the right to practise in England and Wales is having a “significant impact on clients in terms of cost and inconvenience”, the Law Society of Scotland has claimed. While intra-UK practice rights for solicitors have been in place since 1990, there are no corresponding provisions concerning notaries public.
Slater & Gordon’s share price slides 15% on back of confirmed losses
Slater & Gordon’s core UK business lost A$64m (£37m) in the year to 30 June 2016, while it spent A$33m on reorganising operations over here, the listed firm’s annual results have revealed. The company had already prepared the market for the group’s headline loss of A$1.02bn but still its shares fell 15% in trading.
Finally – insurers get it in the neck for not passing on whiplash savings
The insurance industry had a taste of its own PR medicine over the weekend after The Times accused insurers of “cheating motorists” by not passing on whiplash savings. Meanwhile, cold-calling was back on the agenda after separate announcements by Which?, the Information Commissioner and National Accident Helpline.
