Market monitor

Three-quarters of law firms furloughed fee-earners last year and 84% support staff, a Law Society survey has found. Some 15% were forced to negotiate ‘time to pay’ arrangements with HMRC.

Listed legal services and credit hire business Anexo Group took advantage of competitors leaving the personal injury market or putting staff on furlough last year, it told investors yesterday.

The small claims limit for all personal injury claims other than RTAs will only rise to £1,500, rather than £2,000, and its introduction deferred, the government announced yesterday.

US dispersed law firm Rimon has entered the UK market as an alternative business structure, with plans to expand rapidly and challenge the likes of Keystone Law and gunnercooke.

A conveyancing solicitor has won her unfair dismissal and discrimination claim against a well-known Essex law firm by default after it filed its defence two days late.

Claimant representatives are urging MPs and peers to push back on the “derisory and offensive” new tariff for whiplash injuries when put for approval in Parliament this week.

A leading Chinese law firm has converted its London operation into an alternative business structure with a view to bringing non-lawyer partners on board. It is already in talks with some.

Online legal services provider Rocket Lawyer has received a £161m funding boost to meet growing demand and scale up its cloud-based case management system.

The Chancery Lane Project, a global collaboration of lawyers looking to fight climate change, has published the latest set of model contract clauses, which it says are increasingly being taken up.

RBG Holdings, the listed business that owns City law firm Rosenblatt, has more than doubled in size after announcing the £30m acquisition of London practice Memery Crystal.

Citizens Advice gave one-to-one advice to two million people during the year of the pandemic, the “vast majority” of them remotely, the service has said.

More than 700 individuals and businesses have agreed to use a standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for use when beginning negotiations over corporate transactions.

The major City law firms are on notice that their big hitters want a permanent post-Covid change in work patterns or some will look to leave, new research has found.

An app linking consumers to lawyers who provide free video consultations has been launched this week after three months of testing with 20 law firms – more than 160 firms have now signed up.

A solicitor fired after refusing a demand to vary her contract so her firm could furlough her or reduce her wages to help it cope with the impact of Covid has won a claim for unfair dismissal.