News

A former City solicitor has launched what she believes is the first global claims management company in a bid to bring together businesses affected by the crisis in Libya. Nina Hall says she has already attracted $1.1bn of claims.

Offering would-be solicitors – and particularly paralegals – a route to qualification that does not require a training contract may not be the way to reduce barriers to access to the profession, new research has suggested.

Regulation will cost solicitors 22% less this year, figures released by the Solicitors Regulation Authority have revealed. However, contributions to the compensation fund are set to soar – from £10 to £60 for individuals and £120 to £772 for firms.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority today called for talks with a senior judge over concerns about the role of judges in assessing the quality of criminal law advocates.

The Court of Appeal has once again declined to follow the landmark House of Lords ruling in Sephton when deciding when the limitation period starts running for the purposes of a professional negligence claim. It is a decision hailed as good news for lawyers.

Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds is wrong to say there is a “disconnect” between legal education and legal practice, it was claimed last week by the man who has systematically reviewed the Bar’s education and training regime.

It is highly unlikely that the Solicitors Regulation Authority will be able to license alternative business structures on 6 October, Legal Futures can reveal. Legal Services Board chief executive Chris Kenny has admitted to us that getting the required orders through Parliament in time is looking “not impossible but very difficult”.

The practising certificate fee is set to fall by 16.7% to £350 in the coming year, it has emerged. The news comes as the Solicitors Regulation Authority should tomorrow approve provisions that will allow it to amend an alternative business structure’s turnover figure – upon which the SRA’s fees will be based – if it feels the number does not reflect the true value of the legal services provided.

There should be no general ban on referral fees, but individual frontline regulators are free to impose one for their part of the legal market if they can justify it, the Legal Services Board has concluded. It said transparency needs improving but there is little evidence of “actual or potential harm”.

A leading supplier of outsourced employment law services to thousands of businesses has itself been found to have unfairly dismissed three legal staff after failing to follow proper redundancy procedures.