News

Clients will in future gravitate to trusted brands but independent lawyers can continue to play a major role in providing legal services if they take the necessary steps, leading figures from five law firm networks have predicted.

Three companies involved in the provision of will and trusts were wound up in the High Court last week, following an investigation by Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service. They used telesales staff to cold-call consumers to persuade them to accept a home visit.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is in “serious discussions” with just 15 potential alternative business structures (ABSs), it has emerged. According to the SRA, six different types of organisation have so far shown official interest in becoming ABSs.

The ban on referral fees should not be limited to personal injury, a committee of MPs has said. It also called for the Information Commissioner to have the power to compel audits of law firms to check for breaches of the Data Protection Act.

Professional indemnity insurers will have to leave quotations open for at least five days and provide information about their credit ratings under plans being considered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Voiding policies is also back on the agenda.

The government has set out how it intends to ban referral fees in personal injury, but has included a get-out if the payment is made “as consideration for the provision of services”. Its draft rules also allow the Lord Chancellor to ban referral fees in other areas of practice.

Ofcom has found ITV in breach of its code for allowing TV personality Amanda Holden to promote QualitySolicitors on the day she launched its tie-up with WH Smith. The network broke the rules on promoting services and on giving them undue prominence in programming.

Before-the-event legal expenses insurers cannot reject a policyholder’s choice of a non-panel solicitor because the lawyer will not accept payment on their rates, the High Court has ruled – and those rates are not the starting point in a costs assessment.

Investors can be good for many businesses but not when that business is a law firm, a leading in-house lawyer has warned, expressing particular concern that clients’ interests “may take a backseat to the lawyers’ search for additional capital”.

A record number of solicitors have been either struck off or suspended, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revealed. However, the number of solicitors appearing before the tribunal has dropped sharply, possibly because of the SRA’s new powers to issue sanctions itself.