Practice Management

A long-standing seller of legal documents is set to launch a venture selling simple packages of documents aimed at website developers and people running online businesses.

The High Court has had to unpick the fall-out of the sale of a law firm, with the seller claiming unpaid purchase money and the buyer arguing that the failure to disclose potential legal action against the firm led to sharp increases in the cost of its indemnity insurance.

A London media law firm has become what is believed to be the UK’s first legal practice to accept the virtual currency bitcoin in payment for its services.

An online legal service aimed at small businesses and “democratising the law” has almost completed its second round of ‘crowdfunding’, raising more than £100,000 in less than a month as it targets ambitious expansion.

A failure to pay debts – and the increasing willingness of creditors to pursue solicitors for their money – is the most common feature of law firms in financial difficulty, Solicitors Regulation Authority research has found.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) will create additional demand for legal services outsourcing (LSO) and could in time become LSO providers themselves, a new book has predicted.

City lawyers have ratcheted up their attempt to limit the scope of legislation aimed at tax abuse by LLPs, with strong submissions to the House of Lords and HM Revenue & Customs.

Harnessing the communications power of the digital revolution can go a long way towards filling the access to justice gap created by cuts in legal aid, according to a major report.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking at whether to abolish all of the prescriptive requirements around continuing professional development (CPD) and leave it to solicitors and their firms to decide how best to ensure their continuing competence.

The legal profession is poised on the brink of an employment revolution that will unleash a “pent-up productivity” which will bring it into line with other industries, a report has claimed.

High-profile personal injury law firm Hampson Hughes has defied widespread concern about the use of inducements to attract clients by upping the amount it offers from £1,500 to £2,000.

QBE has taken over as the leading insurer of solicitors, figures released yesterday by the Solicitors Regulation Authority have revealed. Between QBE Insurance (Europe) Ltd and two Lloyd’s syndicates, the Australian-based insurer secured 18.2% of the premiums paid.

The effects of the planned changes to the taxation of LLPs will be “far harsher than originally expected” and could put a significant strain on finances come April, solicitors have been warned.

Partnerships are “very much the poor relation” in the way they are handled by HM Revenue & Customs and indeed regarded by government”, a major Treasury review has found, with many feeling that HMRC sees them “as if they were exclusively avoidance vehicles”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed that around 10 firms have failed to close after failing to secure professional indemnity insurance and are heading for intervention, as the fallout resulting from last year’s renewal season enters its final phase.