All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 20
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News
Code of conduct for litigation funders moves closer
The Civil Justice Council is expected to agree a new code of conduct for third-party funders of litigation by the end of the year, to be combined with the launch of a new association of litigation funders. Compliance with the new voluntary code will be monitored ...
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News
ITV clarifies Holden’s comments on QS
ITV’s This Morning has today clarified comments which were made by Amanda Holden in relation to QualitySolicitors. Following representations from the Law Society, QualitySolicitors agreed to ask the show to correct some comments made by the television presenter when she appeared as a guest of the ...
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News
Will solicitors want to disclose their diversity information?
The publication of magic circle firm Linklaters’ diversity statistics last week was made all the more interesting by the fact that the Legal Services Board has just laid down in statutory guidance its expectation that all firms will need to be publishing similar information by 2012. ...
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News
LSA changes ‘flying under the radar’ of law firms
Provisions of the Legal Services Act permitting law firms to take on external investment are ‘flying under the radar’ of most small and medium-sized firms, research has suggested. A survey of 75 firms with turnover between £5m and £25m by accountants HW Fisher & Company found ...
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The Co-operative is gearing up to become an ABS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority expressed its disappointment last week that the constraints of the parliamentary timetable mean it will not be able to begin licensing alternative business structures on 6 October, when the final provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007 come into force. But the regulator is not the ...
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News
Ombudsman reveals £8.3m operating costs in first six months
The Legal Ombudsman has spent £8.3m in operating costs in its first six months since it came into being on 6 October, according to its annual report published yesterday. The Ombudsman’s combined implementation and operation costs have been £21.4m from 1 July 2009 when the project ...
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News
PII premiums not affected by ethnicity or conveyancing work
Law firms do not face higher insurance premiums because they conduct residential conveyancing work or are run by black and ethnic minority lawyers, an authoritative study has indicated. Law Society-commissioned research into last year’s professional indemnity insurance renewal found that while more firms overall had experienced ...
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News
Solicitors are not as good at writing wills as they assume
Solicitors offering wills are quite rightly worried about how they will compete with new providers, both on- and off-line, as they increasingly enter the market. If matching these interlopers on price isn’t an option because of the higher regulatory costs faced by law firms, then ...
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News
New Law Society president sets out his stall
Improving the Law Society’s relationship with the in-house sector and ensuring the success of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme will be two key areas of focus for the Society’s new president in the year ahead, he told the Gazette this week. John Wotton (pictured), who takes over ...
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News
Disgruntled clients: the Ombudsman gives us a glimpse
This week the Legal Ombudsman took a small baby step on a very long and distant path that may - or may not - ultimately end in the publication of complaints upheld by LeO against named law firms. That may or may not happen, and ...
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News
Government ‘sympathetic’ to introducing referral fee ban
The government is ‘sympathetic’ to the idea of banning referral fees, Ministry of Justice minister Lord McNally told the House of Lords yesterday. McNally said that if public opinion demands a ban, the government will respond to that demand. In ...
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News
Insurance lawyers call for lower fixed-fee rates
Insurance lawyers are pressing the Ministry of Justice to reduce the fixed-fee rates payable to claimant lawyers under the Road Traffic Accident portal. Responding to a government consultation on speeding up county court cases, which closed last week, the Forum of Insurance Lawyers said the ...
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News
Society formally urges Clarke to ban referral fees
The Law Society has written to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke urging him to act immediately to ban referral fees, after he revealed last week that he is ‘considering’ the issue. Society president Linda Lee said she had met with Clarke and minister for employment Chris Grayling ...
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News
Conveyancing Quality Scheme applications pass 1,000
The Law Society has received more than 1,000 applications for its Conveyancing Quality Scheme, it said today. Some 1,034 applications have been submitted since the scheme opened in January, and 317 have been accredited so far. Law Society president Linda Lee ...
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News
Transport Committee re-opens insurance premiums inquiry
The transport committee has re-opened its inquiry into cost of motor insurance and has called on former justice minister Jack Straw to give oral evidence. Committee chair Louise Ellman, a Labour/Co-operative MP, said Straw’s recently published report on the rising cost of premiums would make a ...
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News
Solicitors launch new third-party litigation funder
Two solicitors launched a new third-party litigation funder Vannin Capital today, set to invest ‘significant sums’ in litigation. The funder, founded by solicitor Nick Rowles-Davies and solicitor and barrister William Evans of Ely Place Chambers, is backed by Isle of Man-based private equity firm Bramden Investments. ...
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News
Lawyers seek deal with insurers over freedom to choose non-panel firms
The Law Society’s civil justice committee is in negotiations with legal expenses insurers to agree rules that will ensure freedom of choice of solicitor in personal injury claims. The committee has held two meetings with insurers in a bid to agree terms enabling clients to choose ...
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News
LSB publishes final referral fees decision
The Legal Services Board has dropped plans to force law firms to publish their referral fee arrangements on their websites, in its final decision on the regulation of referral fees published today. The LSB said it would no longer seek to prescribe the precise measures that ...
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News
LSB to further probe value of quality schemes
The Legal Services Board is to seek further evidence to assess the usefulness of quality schemes for indicating whether law firms provide a good service to consumers, it revealed today. The LSB has asked its Legal Services Consumer Panel, the body that advises it on the ...
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News
Legal executives should be on ‘equal footing’ to solicitors, claims ILEX
Legal executives should be able to provide the full breadth of services ‘on an equal footing’ to solicitors, the president of the Institute of Legal Executives said yesterday. David McGrady said securing further rights for ILEX members remains the goal of the professional body. ...