All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 21
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News
A good way of saving costs without merging?
In the run-up to the 6 October start date for alternative business structures, various surveys have reported a distinct hotting up of the number of mergers among law firms. At the High Street end, part of the reason for this will be firms’ very sensible desire to achieve greater economies ...
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Bankruptcy petition filed against Solicitors from Hell owner
A solicitor who won libel damages from the owner of the Solicitors from Hell website has filed a bankruptcy petition against him after he failed to pay damages ordered by the court. The solicitor, from London firm Hickman & Rose, is seeking £31,105.44 from website owner ...
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Society sends letter of claim to Solicitors from Hell owner
The Law Society sent a letter of claim to the owner of the Solicitors from Hell website last week, as it prepared to launch a class action against him on behalf of the profession. The letter demands that website owner Rick Kordowski must close the site, ...
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Lawyers see rise in insolvency and employment work
Law firms have seen a surge in insolvency-related work and employment advice, as tough economic conditions continue to affect clients. Figures from law firm referral service Contact Law showed a significant rise in calls from members of the public and businesses relating to employment and insolvency. ...
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Is the Legal Services Board expecting a slow start to ABSs?
The Legal Services Board published a research paper last week outlining its ‘latest thinking’ on the impact of alternative business structures. The paper seems to be preparing the ground for a slow start, with bigger developments later on. It predicts that the ...
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Targeting a section of the client base is the way forward
It was heartening today to learn of the strategy adopted by Lancashire firm Joseph Frasier, which is setting out to become the first practice specially dedicated to deaf and hard-of-hearing clients. The move to target a particular niche area of the market is precisely what consultants ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...