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The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review last week.
At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, the court granted the Law Society's application for an expedited hearing of its legal challenge to the LSC's family tender process.
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Barristers' chambers could provide a ‘lifeline' to small criminal law firms, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC has told the Gazette.
But Green criticised some solicitors who he claimed have threatened to ‘blacklist' any chambers that bid against them for legal aid contracts.
Green said that when the Legal Services Commission next tenders for criminal contracts, likely to be next year, he expects to see barristers' chambers putting in bids for work using the model procurement company devised by the Bar Council, known as the ProcureCo.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated.
The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA board at its next board meeting, suggests that the profession would be ‘confused' if ‘the clarity of the message in the [SRA's] guidance of July 2009 is watered down in any way'.
It adds that ‘a bright-line position is clearer for the regulated community and for the public'.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has visited 88 firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) since July, as part of its tougher enforcement strategy to clamp down on ‘financially unstable' firms in the pool.
The regulator announced a new enforcement regime in July designed to address the problem of unpaid ARP premiums. Firms that do not pay their premiums will face expulsion from the pool and be forced to cease trading.
The latest figures show that there are currently 214 firms in the ARP, of which 94 still have some outstanding premiums.
A Danish insurance company has entered the solicitors professional indemnity insurance (PII) market to provide cover to small and medium-sized law firms, as the 1 October renewals deadline approaches.
Copenhagen-based Alpha Insurance A/S will issue PII policies for firms of between one and 25 partners, in conjunction with Giles Insurance Brokers and St Giles Legal and Professional Risks.
Alpha's cover will be reinsured by Nasdaq-listed Greenlight Re, which has an ‘excellent' financial stability rating from analyst AM Best.
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