Legal Services Act

The time has come for the Ministry of Justice to consider whether lawtech companies, along with other unregulated legal services providers, should be regulated, ACSO has said.

The Legal Ombudsman has paid compensation to one of its ombudsmen after being found guilty of indirect sex discrimination, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Brexit agreement, greeted by lawyers with “sighs of relief”, had led to a “much more clunky world” for legal services, with important issues like privilege unresolved, the Law Society president has said.

There is finally movement on the rule changes required to make the whiplash reforms happen, with the new pre-action protocol all but approved last month, it has emerged.

The Legal Services Board is pushing ahead with plans to introduce continuing competence checks for lawyers. This could include feedback from consumers, judges and peers, assurance visits or revalidation.

A consultants-led law firm based in Yorkshire has unveiled plans for national expansion after seeing its caseload double in 2020 with the post-lockdown conveyancing boom.

A virtual set of tax and revenue-specialist barristers has multiplied from its two founders to 11 members since it launched last summer, with several based overseas as it looks to build a global practice.

Legal marketing business First4Lawyers is to create an alternative business structure to handle road traffic accident claims after the whiplash reforms are introduced in May.

The legal profession claimed victory last night in the fight against extended operating hours in the criminal courts – although the Ministry of Justice has not yet confirmed it.

The Legal Ombudsman is “setting itself up to fail” by proposing to give itself more work than it can cope with and asking for an “extraordinary high” budget increase of 19%.