All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 25
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News
Are solicitors right to worry about publication of complaints?
Plans by the new Legal Services Ombudsman to publish details of complaints against law firms seem to be ruffling a few feathers in the profession. But while the Law Society has warned against the proposals on the basis that statistics show they would disadvantage certain sections of the profession, consumer ...
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LSC and consumer bodies call for complaints publication
The Legal Services Commission is pushing to obtain access to 'detailed information' about successful complaints made against solicitors, which it will use to assess the performance of its providers. Responding to a Legal Services Ombudsman (LeO) consultation of what information it should publish on the complaints ...
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Conveyancing Quality Scheme advertising campaign to launch
The Law Society is to launch a consumer-facing advertising campaign to promote its Conveyancing Quality Scheme this spring, it said last week. The campaign will feature online ‘pay per click’ banner advertising, as well as promotional material including posters and stickers which will be made available ...
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Where solicitors are going wrong in online wills
I had a meeting last week with Grahame Cohen, chief product and technology officer at Epoq – the company that writes software for many of the big brands now providing wills for consumers. I’ll confess that I was expecting something of a sales pitch from ...
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Twitter silence 'hurts brand'
Two-thirds of top-50 law firms have a Twitter account, but some may be 'damaging their brand’ by failing to actually tweet anything, a report has suggested. The study by web consultancy Intendance found that 66% of firms had set up at least one account on Twitter. ...
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Warning over 'regulatory ambush'
Lawyers could face a ‘regulatory ambush’ if a radical overhaul of the solicitors’ rulebook goes ahead without a ‘change in culture’ at the profession’s regulator, the Law Society has warned. In a response to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Architecture of Change consultation, which closed last week, ...
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Law firms’ poor use of Twitter risks 'damaging their brand’
Two-thirds of top-50 law firms have a Twitter account, but some may be 'damaging their brand’ by failing to tweet anything at all, a report has suggested. The study by web consultancy Intendance found that 66% of firms had set up at least one account ...
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UK legal sector set to benefit from Hong Kong investment
A surge in foreign direct investment in Hong Kong presents key opportunities for the UK legal sector, Law Society president Linda Lee said last week on returning from a mission to the territory. Lee said Hong Kong could serve as a gateway to mainland China for ...
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Are solicitors really better at drafting wills?
The hot topic in the field of wills right now is clearly the issue of whether will-writing should become a reserved activity; something that is on the Legal Services Board’s work agenda.
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Profession’s growth 'defies gravity’, SRA figures show
The number of practising solicitors in England and Wales has risen sharply to more than 120,000, with their ranks growing at an accelerated rate despite the economic pressures faced by the profession, the latest figures have shown. One leading industry commentator claimed that the rise ...
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News
Support grows for regulation of will-writing
A call for evidence on whether will-writing should become a regulated activity has received a huge response from the profession and public, with consumer bodies in favour of regulation. The Legal Services Board Consumer Panel has received 380 case studies from lawyers, members of the public ...
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Are judges getting feisty?
You might expect a court’s annual report to be a pretty dull read. But not so the Court of Appeal’s annual report, released earlier this month, with a forward by the lord chief justice Lord Judge.
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News
Forced mediation will encourage ‘excessive demands’ in family disputes
Pushing parties into mediation in family disputes will encourage badly behaved partners to make ‘excessive demands’, an MP warned in a parliamentary debate on legal aid reform last week. Labour MP Karen Buck, who tabled an adjournment debate on legal aid that took place last week, ...
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News
Publish complaints against firms, Consumer Panel urges
The body that advises the Legal Services Board on the interests of consumers has called for the publication of complaints made against law firms if they have been upheld. Responding to an open consultation by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) on whether its decisions should be published, the Legal Services Consumer ...
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News
Motion to widen Society membership withdrawn
Law Society Council member Derek French withdrew his motion proposing to allow barristers and legal executives to become members of the Law Society, at the Society’s council last week. However, French said the Society’s Membership Board has agreed to prepare a paper on the issue, which ...
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News
Law firms face new year 'cash crunch'
Law firms will face a ‘cash crunch’ at the end of January, but are likely to find it difficult to source finance from their banks, experts warned this week The news came as the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed that it wrote to the top 50 law ...
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Consumers unattracted by non-legal brands, survey suggests
Two-thirds of consumers would not want to buy their legal services through non-legal brands, according to a survey of 2,000 clients seen exclusively by the Gazette. In the poll by law firm referral service Contact Law, 66% of consumers said they would not be happy to ...
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Out of court disposals warning
Too many cases are being dealt with by out of court disposals where the police are acting as prosecutor and judge, a Court of Appeal judge said last week. Giving the Roscoe lecture on criminal justice, Lord Justice Leveson pointed out that 450,000 cases were dealt ...
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Law Society should open to non-solicitors, council member proposes
The Law Society Council will vote on a motion next week that would see barristers and legal executives given the right to seek full membership of the Society. The motion has been submitted by Derek French, Law Society Council member for Birmingham District, rather than by ...
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Lawyers switched on to technology
Two-thirds of lawyers now use a BlackBerry device for work, and three-quarters check their messages either constantly, or at least every hour, research has suggested. A survey of 100 solicitors from firms of all sizes by research company Jures, on behalf of legal publisher LexisNexis, also ...