Market monitor

The whiplash reforms could cost claimant lawyers £80m in lost fees a year, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday as it unveiled its final impact assessment of the changes contained in the Civil Liability Bill. It also projected that they would cost claimants £990m in lost compensation and having to pay legal fees out of their damages.

North Yorkshire County Council has become the latest local authority to set up an alternative business structure (ABS) with the launch of First North Law. It comes as one of the country’s largest ABSs – Enact Conveyancing – has significantly expanded its presence in Yorkshire, creating 160 new jobs.

Legal services marketing giant NAHL is to create a third alternative business structure this year, which will focus on helping injured people navigate small claims if and when the government’s whiplash reforms happen in April 2019. The news comes against the background of its 2017 annual results, which showed revenue up but profit down sharply.

Justice Secretary David Gauke today finally published the Civil Liability Bill, which the government said “offered hope” of lower insurance premiums to millions of motorists by reducing the “unacceptably high number of whiplash claims”. The bill also contains changes to the way the personal injury discount rate is calculated.

A fifth of those buying leaseholds do not recall their solicitors giving them key information such as the length of the lease remaining, service charges and ground rent, according to research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. But overall, conveyancing clients were generally happy with the service they received.

A law firm with offices across south Wales and Gloucestershire has become an alternative business structure to assist ambitious plans to exceed its rapid growth in 2017 and enable its non-lawyer chief executive to become an investor.

It should not be “beyond the wit of man” to design a system for low-value personal injury (PI) claims where insurers and their customers handle cases without the involvement of lawyers, the head of one of the country’s biggest insurance companies. The comments came alongside a claimant warning that the PI reforms left plenty of “meat” for CMCs.

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) has set up an alternative business structure to provide legal services to its 500 member churches and other Christian groups. Edward Connor Solicitors, a charity regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, went live on 1 March and is named after FIEC’s founder, Edward Poole-Connor.

A dispersed commercial law firm based in Birmingham is offering solicitors the chance to set up their own firms while working as self-employed consultants. Sandip Sohal, director of My Business Counsel, said two partners from a London media firm and two more from an international City practice had taken up the offer.

Law firm consolidator Metamorph Law has unveiled its first acquisition of 2018 with a deal to buy leading Shropshire general practice Terry Jones Solicitors, which has a turnover of around £5m. Following four acquisitions last year, Metamorph said this latest addition meant it was looking to generate a fee income in excess of £23m in 2018.

High street solicitors are losing out to specialist conveyancing businesses in capturing clients, new research has shown, but all lawyers still have much to improve on client communication. More than a third of clients would even consider paying more for a premium service, it found.

New competition since the introduction of alternative business structures, along with client demands is changing the face of the legal market, research has suggested, with the number of ABSs now topping 1,000. It also showed that 44% of law firms are now incorporated companies, while the number of traditional partnerships shrinking to only 17%.

Listed law firm Gordon Dadds has made its third acquisition in a month in buying Cardiff firm Thomas Simon. The acquisition vehicle is paying £1.875m plus an amount related to net tangible assets. If all the turnover targets are met for the four firms it has bought since listing, Gordon Dadds will have paid around £20m.

The plan by Carillion Advice Services to become an alternative business structure looks to be at an end after the business was bought by magic circle firm Clifford Chance. We also report on two private equity backed ABSs that have used their financial muscle to expand, and a private client firm that has decided to enter regulation with the CLC.

Conveyancers saw their first annual drop in workload since 2011 last year, with volumes down 12% to under a million transactions, according to new research. It also found that the number of conveyancing firms has dropped by 28% over the past decade.