Practice Management

Patient Claims Line, a consumer brand of Fletchers solicitors, has become sponsor of ITV daytime show Judge Rinder, in one of the first deals of its kind.

The debate over national versus local legal brands is set to begin again after Norfolk firm Clapham & Collinge announced it was “reclaiming its independence” by leaving the QualitySolicitors network after four years.

The High Court last week threw out a £71m claim against trade union practice Thompsons which sought to blame it for the collapse of a law firm which had tried to bring group litigation on behalf of thousands of miners.

North-west firm Fletchers Solicitors has launched a medical negligence marketing network with three other niche practices in a bid to compete with the biggest players in the market.

Equal pay and a change in culture that makes women feel “comfortable in the working environment” are the keys to ensuring a “truly fair, equal, and diverse legal profession”, a cabinet minister who used to be a City solicitor has argued.

An entrepreneur has revealed plans to combine a claims management company, a consumer website and the clinical negligence department of a top 100 firm to form a market-dominating alternative business structure.

Conveyancers have usurped family lawyers as the main cause of complaints to the Legal Ombudsman, its annual report has revealed. But it also urged lawyers to think twice before pushing for formal decisions rather than accepting informal resolutions to complaints.

A major survey of 4,500 home movers has found that only 13% chose the conveyancer offering the cheapest fee. The survey also found that people were more likely to recommend their estate agent to friends than their conveyancer.

A new website which encourages clients to rate barristers aims to help direct access barristers, and “is not looking to undermine the Bar”, its founder has said.

City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner is in discussions with a specialist provider of artificial intelligence computing to improve its ability to search documents in the field of commercial contracts.

There is considerable unhappiness among home buyers and sellers with conveyancers and the speed of the moving process, new research has found. More than 40% of consumers were unsure or unlikely to offer them repeat business.

A total of 49 firms are heading for closure after failing to secure indemnity insurance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. This compares with 138 which were forced to shut for the same reason last year.

Large corporate clients are demanding “far more” fixed fee and ‘menu’ pricing, but are having to push firms into providing it, a survey based on interviews with 40 in-house teams and 50 top 100 law firms has found.

A new lawyer-matching service aimed particularly at tech start-ups has secured £260,000 of funding from e-commerce funder Forward Partners and Jonathan McKay, chairman of JustGiving.

There are increasing reports of law firms allowing their client account to be used by others as a bank account in clear breach of the rules, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) warned yesterday.