Nick Hilborne

‘Google-spoofing’ by claims management companies, where they pay for prominent Google adverts to trick consumers, does not necessarily involve “anything illegal” in the absence of misrepresentation or fraud, a High Court judge has said.

HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) should host a proposed single online entry point for legal disputes, whether or not they end up in court, respondents to a Law Society consultation have agreed.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has warned regulators that they could face enforcement action over “slow” progress in developing quality indicators to help consumers choose lawyers.

A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) pilot project offering people early publicly funded legal advice for housing debt and welfare benefit ended up helping only five people, an evaluation report has found.

Upfront information on properties for home buyers must be mandated to “revolutionise” the process, the chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group has told MPs.

Conveyancing ‘factories’ are property specialists and invest in technology to give consumers the service they want, the director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association has said.

Global alternative legal services provider (ALSP) Axiom has entered the UK in-house legal recruitment market, both for permanent staff and for ‘interim to permanent’ positions.

A solicitor fined £20,000 five years ago by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) for loaning a client money at 60% APR, has been fined a further £30,000 for misleading the SDT about other loans and acting for clients despite conflicts of interest.

A network set up by Ukrainian lawyers at a City law firm has helped over 350 lawyers fleeing the country to develop careers in the UK.

Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to regulate CILEX paralegals are a risk to the “reputation of the solicitor profession” and unnecessary, the Law Society has argued.