News

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Alternative business structures (ABSs) are unlikely to create a “serious adverse impact” on access to justice, research conducted for the Law Society is to conclude.

The Law Society has approved a £22m outlay on a new IT system for the Solicitors Regulation Authority that will hit solicitors in their practising certificate fees, Legal Futures can reveal.

The heads of both the Legal Services Board (LSB) and Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) are in the list of those working at quangos who earn more than £150,000, which was released by the Cabinet Office today.

This week’s Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority looks at whether you should take any action when representing a divorce client who has had a sexual relationship with her husband’s solicitor.

For tech-savvy firms, alternative business structures will highlight the power of partnerships within the conveyancing sector, says David Kempster, marketing director at MDA SearchFlow.

Professional indemnity insurers will no longer have to pay the defence costs of solicitors facing disciplinary proceedings, bolstering the case for a legal defence union, Legal Futures can reveal.

How do people find legal help? It is well known within the legal profession that while lawyers may not have a great reputation with the public as a whole, consumers are far warmer about their own solicitor.

A row is brewing between the Law Society and the Legal Services Consumer Panel over the make-up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) board, Legal Futures can reveal. The Law Society says it has no intention of taking active steps to remove the solicitor majority on the board until the current members’ terms end in 2013.

The Legal Ombudsman will open on 6 October 2010, it confirmed today. The board of the Legal Ombudsman has agreed to keep to its plans for opening, subject to the Parliamentary timetable. The announcement indicates confidence that the new service will survive scrutiny by the Cabinet committee examining the need for all pending regulations left by the previous government.

There is no reason to reduce the level of the guideline hourly rates so as to strip out the cost of referral fees, an influential committee has concluded. The Advisory Committee on Civil Costs found no evidence that referral fees are too high and said claims management companies do not make excessive profits.