Practice Management

Alex Mills, who was last week fired from The Apprentice, has told Legal Futures that his fledgling brand Dynamo Legal has a six-month window to capitalise on the publicity his stint on the BBC show has generated.

Personal injury solicitors have urged the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to rethink its “unacceptable” refusal to ban inducements to claim. It comes as actuaries have warned that “claims farming is on the increase”.

A human resources (HR) outsourcing one-stop shop involving both lawyers and non-lawyers has been launched by City firm DAC Beachcroft, with plans to roll out the blueprint to other areas of legal services.

The Law Society has refused to comment on speculation that it is to launch its own professional indemnity insurance offering for law firms. Legal Futures understands that it has been examining a managing general agency model.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has finally given ground over unrated insurers and is to investigate again whether it should introduce financial eligibility criteria. The regulator has launched an assessment of the “full implications” of such a move.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not be banning personal injury firms from offering inducements to clients to instruct them, but has warned that they need to consider whether doing so fuels a compensation culture.

The Law Society yesterday unveiled its “bold” new advertising campaign to promote personal injury solicitors, with the strap-line ‘Don’t get mugged by an insurer – use a solicitor’. As revealed by Legal Futures last week, the campaign is costing around £300,000.

An interpreter company is set to appoint a huge panel of hundreds of law firms for a new Community Legal Helpline. Yorkshire-based translation firm Applied eXperts Ltd said it is responding to a rise in legal queries from non-English speaking individuals.

A personal injury firm has been reprimanded for an “irresponsible” radio ad which encouraged accident victims to claim compensation “irrespective of injury”. The news comes ahead of a £300,000 Law Society national advertising campaign that will promote PI lawyers.

The 1,300 law firms who have their professional indemnity insurance with Balva face the prospect of having four weeks to find new cover if the winding-up process the Latvian company started yesterday becomes an “insolvency event”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

Eight members of Law Society committees have been kicked off for failing to undergo mandatory equality and diversity training, it has emerged. All members of boards and committees had a 30 April 2013 deadline to undergo the training.

Close to half of consumers of legal services are not satisfied with the value for money they received, with probate providing the least satisfaction and will writing the most, according to research. Just 57% considered they received value for money on average.

A single scheme joining up professional indemnity insurance and compensation funds across the whole legal services market – including unregulated providers – should be actively explored, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has recommended.

A scheme that offers solicitors a “lifeline” by enabling them to continue working with personal injury referrers was launched today by well-known legal IT firm Epoq. The company has created LegalGo, a free legal assistance plan.

The Co-operative Legal Services has disassociated itself from comments made by its sales and marketing director that putting consumers at the heart of what they do is “alien” to solicitors, after complaints by the Law Society.