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The government has pushed back implementation of the Jackson reforms and the referral fee ban to April 2013, it announced yesterday. However, it knocked back all amendments to key elements of the reforms during a House of Lords debate.

The Jackson reforms are “excessive and over-zealous” in their impact on personal injury work, failing to achieve their core objective of promoting access to justice at proportionate cost, an academic study has concluded. Dr Claire McIvor said the judge’s recommendations “blatantly prioritise the interests of defendants”.

Our round-up of other significant news stories includes a law firm using its new PI advertising campaign to highlight its opposition to the Jackson reforms, and the Law Society/SRA moving into swish new Birmingham offices.

Plans to introduce qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) in personal injury litigation should be scrapped, one of the country’s leading insurance companies has told Legal Futures. Allianz – the first insurer to back away from an aspect of the Jackson reforms – found support from a top claimant lawyer.

Lawyers complaining about the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill have not considered the impact of ABSs in changing the way the legal profession works, justice minister Lord McNally said yesterday. However, the second reading of the bill raised the possibility of a concession over removing clinical negligence from legal aid and of further regulation of third-party funding.