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The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers will next week launch a final attempt to challenge the Jackson reforms by setting out a new negotiating position that drops outright opposition to the changes. However, defendant lawyers rebuffed any suggestion of compromise.

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.

Barristers need to grasp the opportunities offered by direct access for the public, which will also help them bid for legal aid contracts, the chairman of the Bar Council has urged. Peter Lodder QC said the “critical importance” of public access is underlined by the proposed legal aid cuts.

There are too many barristers in private practice, Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke has said. In a report on a meeting with the justice secretary, Bar Council chairman Peter Lodder QC said Mr Clarke had also claimed it was “cloud cuckoo land” for chambers to think they could continue as they used to.

The controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates may now be subject to a full pilot, it has emerged, at the same time as criminal barristers are up in arms at Legal Services Commission plans to use the scheme to end payments for QCs, which they say threatens its whole future.