Practice Management

A criminal law firm has teamed up with a technology company to launch what it said is the first app to digitise the work of criminal lawyers, even when they are working offline in prisons or police stations.

A legal advice business run by a struck-off solicitor has been ordered into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The legal community has mixed feelings about the ‘equivalent means’ route to qualification as a solicitor, with even those who like the idea fearing the consquences of greater competition and consequently lower wages, according to a survey.

The claim last week by conveyancing portal Veyo that “just under a half of conveyancing firms in England and Wales have now registered” with it means simply that they have provided basic contact details to keep up-to-date with developments, Legal Futures has established.

The High Court has allowed media law firm Olswang to escape being named as a defendant in a $400m (£267m) claim relating to work completed before the partnership converted to LLP status when it upheld a refusal to correct a mistake in naming it as a party.

There is a wide range of practice areas where solicitors can offer unbundled legal services, from actions against the police to civil litigation, the Law Society has suggested. It said firms could also use paralegals to act as McKenzie Friends in court.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is investigating two law firms which it said should have closed at the end of last year, having failed to find indemnity insurance.

The way law firms handle telephone enquiries from prospective clients is so bad that “it’s as if every managing partner in the land met up at a secret location and agreed the worst way possible to deal with them”, a leading consultant has claimed.

Small to medium-sized UK law firms are enjoying a sustained period of economic recovery, but face new challenges arising from renewed growth, according to a major study examining a wide range of performance indicators.

A partner at a small West London firm has taken ‘niche’ to a new level by specialising in litigation resulting from the first few turbulent years of digital currency bitcoin.

Express Solicitors, the Manchester personal injury firm, is poised to make further acquisitions after securing £10m funding from the Royal Bank of Scotland. It said the money allowed a focus on growing the business “without having to compromise” on other areas.

The Bar Council has joined forces with a legal credit finance specialist to enable direct access barristers to offer payment plans to their clients. BARCO, the Bar’s escrow account, will hold the loans obtained for clients by Legal Cost Finance.

An American lawyer has successfully sued over an online review posted by a British man, winning £50,000 damages at the High Court. Timothy Bussey, a criminal law attorney based in Colorado, found himself the target of a review attached to his firm’s Google Maps profile.

Irwin Mitchell has become the latest major consumer law firm to launch a new advertising campaign aimed across a spread of its services, including a personal injury commercial that it said would “distance” the practice from other firms.

Solicitors are not under a general duty to check the credit status of parties in a commercial transaction unless instructed to, the High Court has ruled. Who to trust in a business situation is “a commercial decision for the client to take and not the solicitor”.