News

There are “significant risks” for law firms offering gifts, entertainment and to pay for expenses as a result of the Bribery Act 2010, the Law Society has warned. While referral fees should not fall foul of the Act, solicitors need to be aware of whether their introducers are behaving in a way that might.

More than half of all legal providers are failing to meet requirements to provide clients with clear information on their complaints procedure – according to research from the Legal Services Board – which also shows that almost 70% of complaints against lawyers are upheld.

A fifth of all law firms are now members of legal referral and support network Connect2Law, it has emerged. Set up a decade ago by Manchester law firm Pannone, Connect2Law now has 2,240 members, with hopes of reaching as many as 3,000 by the end of 2011.

The Treasury is set to abolish more than two dozen money laundering offences that can penalise lawyers for minor rule breaches, it has confirmed, but they could be replaced with extra powers for regulators. Very small businesses could even be exempted from the rules altogether.

The Ministry of Justice’s impact assessments (IAs) accompanying its Jackson implementation plan have been branded “not fit for purpose” by the government-appointed committee that vets them, it has been claimed.

The Law Society is wrong to suggest there is no evidence of a quality problem in criminal advocacy – according to one of the academics who produced it. Professor Richard Moorhead said there were failures “unparalleled in any assessment of lawyer quality in which I have been involved”.

The Co-operative has this week broken new ground by offering face-to-face legal services, combined with financial services advice, through the Britannia bank. The pilot could be the precuror to legal services being delivered through 350 branches of Britannia and the Co-operative Bank.

An action plan to deal with a range of equality and diversity problems in the solicitors’ profession – from pay inequality and firms’ billing practices, to flexible working and career progression – is being drawn up within the Law Society, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Law Society has launched what appears to be a last-ditch bid to persuade the Legal Services Board to scrap the proposed scheme to assess the quality of criminal advocacy, saying there is no evidence to support the assertion that standards have fallen.

The Legal Services Board is to be slimmed down, and variable length terms introduced, after most of its members were reappointed. Chairman David Edmonds said he believed “we can operate at the same high level with a smaller board”.