Finance

New guidance on delegated authority claims handling by lawyers may create additional VAT costs for law firms and lead to disputes with their insurance clients, accountants have warned.

Barristers would be “well advised” to make proper provision for tax liabilities given the “episodic” nature of their income, a tribunal has cautioned after upholding a fine against a QC hit by legal aid cuts.

Litigation is not a “blank cheque” and divorcing people cannot behave on the basis that they are bound to be reimbursed for their costs, a leading family law judge has warned.

The High Court has ruled that a partner in a law firm who paid himself £16,500 after he had left the firm and was “effectively competing with it” breached his director’s duties.

A “disastrous IT failure” suffered by a law firm’s biggest client tipped it over the edge into administration and a pre-pack sale to fast-growing national firm Taylor Rose TTKW.

A former partner of a London firm that went into liquidation has lost his bid to strike out Barclays Bank’s claim to enforce a guarantee he provided to cover a loan and overdraft.

Knights Group – the Staffordshire-based law firm that listed in June – has secured bank funding to support its strategy to complete at least three acquisitions by April 2020.

A client who received a mistaken payment of £177,000 from a law firm and only paid back £144,000 has failed to overturn a judgment in default.

A personal injury law firm has lost its appeal against a High Court ruling that dismissed its £4.5m claim over referrals from an insurer that did not materialise.

A QC fined more than £1m for the late payment of both income and inheritance tax over several years has had the sanction reduced by 80%.