Two pioneering criminal law solicitors who set up a free e-mail-based information service for their peers have seen its membership grow to 3,000 - and now plan to expand.

Andrew Keogh, associate at leading national crime firm Tuckers and Paul Lewis, partner at Liverpool's David Phillips, set about creating Crimeline in 2002 in a bid to share knowledge about the latest criminal law developments through weekly on-line updates, while enabling members to accumulate free CPD points along the way.

The Crimeline Updater features court rulings, provides guidance on legislation and covers other news and events in the criminal law field.

There is also a Web site, www.crimeline.info, which provides basic information on the service, as well as back issues of the Updater.

Mr Keogh and Mr Lewis opted for an e-mail service because it was effective but cheap to set up and run.

Users receive a monthly, automated CPD quiz that marks the answers instantly and produces a certificate if they have scored highly enough; Crimeline has also just extended the CPD benefits to barristers.

'We aim to have 5,000 users by the end of 2004, and hopefully most of these lawyers will be taking advantage of the 12 hours' free CPD on offer,' Mr Keogh said.

'Case law coverage will be expanded over the next 12 months, partly as a result of changes having been made to the access arrangements to judgments, and we hope to carry more articles of general interest to our readers.

We will continue to watch the market closely and adapt the Updater to the needs of our readers.'

Paula Rohan