Practice Management

The first trial of online dispute resolution (ODR) in the UK’s courts and tribunals will introduce a concept known as the “online continuous hearing”, it has emerged, with the Senior President of Tribunals urging a change in perception of litigation from an adversarial dispute to “a problem to be solved”.

Software or data analysis techniques that could help flag up fraudulent legal aid claims or predict the likelihood of someone re-offending are outcomes the Ministry of Justice is hoping could come from a hackathon it will hold later this month.

Pekama, a legal tech company with investment from law firm Taylor Vinters, has launched a mobile app which it believes will trigger a “big change” in the way lawyers communicate. Zeev Fisher, the chief executive of Pekama and a solicitor, said the app had been tested by three law firms.

NAHL Group – the business that owns the National Accident Helpline – has accelerated its march into conveyancing with the launch of a legal comparison site. The Solicitor Finder is initially focused on the residential property sector but will be expanded into other sectors in due course.

The Legal Services Board is set to instruct the frontline regulators like the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board to get tough with lawyers who do not handle client complaints properly. Draft guidance published for consultation yesterday said that they could stage “supervisory interventions” into poorly performing firms.

Online divorce and probate are set to be delivered under the courts modernisation programme by early 2017, the president of the Family Division has said. Sir James Munby also called on family barristers to adopt new working practices, including direct access, unbundling and fixed fees.

The UK is in the sights of a Canadian company that has developed an app aimed at simplifying the divorce process for self-represented couples, including automated completion of divorce application forms and the documents needed to make a separation agreement.

The London Litigation Solicitors Association and the Law Society are pushing for a lower £10,000 limit for cases in the Online Court. In his interim report, Lord Justice Briggs proposed a limit of £25,000. The LSLA said that there should be fixed or capped costs for litigation between £10,000 and £25,000.

Global law firms could in future recruit teenagers to their brands like football teams sign up junior apprentices, if an online recruitment platform that is targeting large employers takes off. The founders claim to be in advanced talks with magic circle law firms about adopting it.

Tribunals are set to embrace online dispute resolution (ODR) in step with Lord Justice Briggs’ plans for an online court for civil cases, with the principle of ‘digital by default’ to the fore, the Senior President of Tribunals revealed yesterday. A pilot is to run in the Social Entitlement Chamber as a matter of priority.

Tech-savvy law students were last week invited to pursue careers delivering legal services via technology businesses instead of the conventional route of joining a legal firm, at a meeting of IT executives committed to establishing London as a global hub for lawtech start-ups.

Barristers who outsource work must not “ask for or accept” any payment from third parties, the Bar Council has warned. However, third parties can “for commercial reasons” offer services to barristers at lower than normal rates, so long as the “entire benefit” is passed to lay clients.

Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a centrally assessed Solicitors Qualifying Examination could create an “even greater diversity problem” for the profession, the Law Society has warned. The society said it could be a “huge issue for those without financial support”.

The Law Society yesterday rowed back from its support for would-be solicitors being able to qualify without degrees, putting it at odds with government backing for apprenticeships. Its chief executive said allowing it risked damaging the profession’s standing and even the global status of England and Wales as a jurisdiction.

Findings of dishonesty, especially against solicitors, should not be made without “the most careful consideration” of what they say in their defence, appeal judges have warned in a case in which they overturned a High Court decision that two solicitors were guilty of “dishonest assistance in a breach of trust”.