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The High Court has handed a suspended four-month sentence to a solicitor who failed to co-operate with an investigation by the Legal Ombudsman. The judge only held back from committing him to prison because of his personal mitigation.

Our latest news round-up reports on an apology over the sudden change in the Legal Ombudsman’s address, which affects all lawyers, a unique agreement between a law firm and a barrister, a crucial ruling on interest on costs, and the exit of the CLC’s chief executive.

Our latest news round-up takes in an innovative partnership to combine financial, taxation and legal advice, an update on ABS applications, the role for ABSs in the conveyancing market, growing fraud claims against solicitors, support for provisional assessment, and new blood at the OLC.

This week marks the end of a consultation by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) on its strategy for the next three years and its business plan for 2012-13. Among other things, it asked for initial responses on whether it should activate the power given to LeO in section 164 of the Legal Services Act to add a voluntary jurisdiction to its statutory one. The idea, says Elizabeth France, chair of LeO’s parent body, the Office for Legal Complaints, is to “fill gaps in access to free and fair redress for consumers of legal services”.

Law firms and barristers’ chambers may be forced to publish statistics on how efficiently they handle complaints internally – including how many they receive – the Legal Ombudsman has suggested.