Practice Management

A pregnant paralegal wrongly accused of benefit fraud by a leading criminal law solicitor who sits on the Law Society council was the victim of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.

Four times as many law graduates will be able to practise as solicitors after the solicitors qualifying examination comes in in 2021, a move that will be “transformative” for access to the law.

There will not be another round of court closures for the time being, but this may change as technology takes hold, justice secretary David Gauke said yesterday.

The government-funded Legal Access Challenge has received more than 85 expressions of interests in applying for funding, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday.

Achieving buy-in for technology regulation from everyone involved in lawtech – from developers to users – is crucial to it working well, according to an analysis looking at the lessons for legal regulators that can be drawn from the medical and financial sectors.

An employment tribunal has comprehensively rejected a disability discrimination claim brought by a paralegal who worked for well-known personal injury firm Ralli.

The Courts and Tribunals (Online Procedure) Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons yesterday after the government added further protection for those unable or unwilling to use online processes.

Four in ten law firms are doing more professional training following the end of the hours-based approach, research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.

A robot claims handler which can take “subjective decisions” about the reliability of witnesses will not replace its human colleagues, the law firm behind it has said.

Venture capitalists have launched a fund aimed at lawtech start-ups, with an emphasis on businesses that hope to exploit big data for corporate decision making.