News

Former justice secretary Jack Straw has described the Legal Services Board’s report on its investigation into referral fees as “gobbledegook”, amid a fierce attack on the operation of the claims industry. He warned that if concerns about high motor premiums were not addressed, tough statutory regulation would follow.

Solicitors and barristers are being targeted to join a new comparison website that claims to be the “new generation” of legal referral businesses by requiring participating law firms and barristers to offer fixed-fee services. CompareLegalCosts.com has also moved away from the referral fee model.

A solicitor has hit out at a “nonsensical” ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority as Legal Futures research showed a small spike in complaints about law firm advertising this year. The ASA has dealt with five complaints about solicitors in 2011 so far, having had only 11 in total since 2007.

A non-lawyer partner at a Manchester law firm has developed what is claimed to be the first web-based risk and compliance software for the legal market and aims to reduce the burden on the compliance officers every law firm has to have under outcomes-focused regulation.

The number of claims against the Solicitors Compensation Fund arising out of mortgage fraud have shot up by 140%, it has emerged. However, the time lag in claims reaching the fund means the figures disguise a “marked decrease” in mortgage fraud cases, according to the SRA.

Complaints against barristers by litigants-in-person (LiPs) forced by legal aid cuts to represent themselves have continued to spike, according to the Bar Standards Board. It has received as many complaints from LiPs in the first half of 2011 as it did in 2009 and 2010 combined.

The latest instalment of our Legal Pioneers series looks at the Whale Rock Professional Services Group, which has legal, accountancy and company secretarial arms. Clients already enjoy the benefits of the one-stop shop, writes Dan Bindman, but becoming an MDP will help considerably.

The Bar Council is once again not compliant with the rules on ensuring the independence of its regulatory arm, the Legal Services Board has decided – while the Law Society’s compliance remains unresolved. But the Bar Council has been given one more year to get its house in order.

QualitySolicitors is generating nearly 100,000 leads per month for its member firms, pioneering research into find-a-solicitor type services has revealed, while around a fifth of such businesses have disappeared since 2010.

A “transfer market” of law firm chief executives should emerge in the post-Legal Services Act world, Professor Stephen Mayson has predicted, especially if lenders and investors insist on appointing their own choice of management team as a condition of their financial support.