Tomorrow's Lawyer Today - the future of Legal Services is here

In his book "Tomorrow's Lawyers - An Introduction to Your Future" Professor Richard Susskind makes some stark predictions about the changes being experienced by the legal profession in England and Wales.

The most worrying issue is that by 2020, Susskind does not see small high street law firms in the legal landscape unless they  identify a market that requires their services and responds to it. In order to work out what that market is, those lawyers who want to survive beyond 2020 need to work out what differentiates them and how this message can be brought to the target market.

Coupled with the existential threat, law firms, large and small, are also facing unprecedented changes in the way they practice and how they are run. A new compliance regime is now in place, with every firm requiring Compliance Officers for both the legal practice and the business management elements of it's work. Accreditation schemes for bread and butter conveyancing and probate work will soon be essential for any firm that hopes to continue doing these types of work.

Referral fees are being banned for personal injury work at the same time as the fees that pesonal injury firms can charge are being slashed. Firms are worried about how they will get work and whether there will be a knock on effect on referral fees for other areas of work.

At the same time, the profession is being opened up to external investment but most of this is bypassing small firms. The future for small legal practices certainly is confusing.

HighStreetLawyer.com plans to address all of these issues and more at its conference Tomorrow's Lawyers Today. With speakers from the world of Banking, Regulatory and Compliance as well as the Managing Director of HighStreetLawyer, the conference will look at all of these topics from the perspective of the small legal firm and propose methods to ensure that those firms planning on surviving post 2020 have the means to do so.

Full details of the conference can be found on our CPD site www.legal-focus.co.uk
http://www.legal-focus.co.uk/courses.html?eventId=48&task=event_register&type=reg_individual

Landmark Information Group

Landmark is the market leader in the provision of property and environmental risk reports. We have built a reputation for comprehensive high quality environmental information by working in close partnership with trusted data services such as Ordnance Survey and the Environment Agency.

Via HighStreetLawyer.com we will offer you a 10% discount on all Landmark Environmental, Flood and Planning Reports and also our service for probate professionals – Landmark FAS.

Our environmental reports fulfil the requirements of Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act and as such minimise your liabilities and protect the value and saleability of your client’s home and the well-being of their family. In fact, our Homecheck Professional range of products has protected the buyers of 2.6 million homes!

Flooding continues to occupy headline news. 2.8 million properties are at risk of surface water flooding. These properties are not located near rivers or coasts. A Landmark flood report will demonstrate your due diligence during the conveyancing process.

It is likely that the March 2012 amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework will make development easier. This reinforces the need for you to consider planning reports as part of the conveyancing process, to help reduce the potential of liability due to a planning issue.

If you are a probate professional then Landmark’s Financial Asset Search protects you and your clients from potential future penalties or negligence claims by identifying lost and forgotten financial assets during the administration of an estate.

Find out more at www.landmark.co.uk or email Janet.Till@landmark.co.uk

Jennings Legal Services was established in 1989. We are currently acting for approximately 700 clients and have 75 staff.

We undertake all categories of costing and have particular experience in high cost care matters and high value catastrophic personal injury cases. We have also been recommended by clients and have achieved 1^st tier APIL status.

We undertake auditing work on behalf of the Legal Aid Board of Guernsey and have acted on behalf of the Government of the Falkland Islands, the Equality & Human Rights Commission and in a number of high profile cases.

We act for a significant number of firms who undertake legal aid work and believe that we are the largest provider of costs drafting services to LSC suppliers, with many draftsmen no longer offering this service.

We are a trusted advisor to solicitor clients who rely on our skills and efficient working methods to maintain cashflow and accurately claim their costs.

We offer a range of added value services to our clients such as free collection and delivery, CPD accredited training on costs and quarterly newsletters. We also offer an administrative support function to our LSC funded clients to assist them secure payment from the LSC.

We work hard to satisfy the needs of our clients and seek regular feedback to ensure we are meeting their expectations. We monitor quality and turnaround and can offer monitoring and reporting to the individual firms requirements.

Please contact us for an informal discussion about your costing needs and our charging structure. 

All Present and Correct

Recent reports from major insurance companies indicate a rise in claims from heirs to estates who have been overlooked or missed out in research.

Probate practitioners who have been unfortunate enough to experience a claim on an estate from an entitled person will know how much of a problem this can be, especially if the claim surfaces after distribution has already taken place. If no indemnity insurance policy was put in place prior to distribution the consequences could be calamitous.

At Finders we have found around 50% of cases referred to us with partial or incomplete research having been compiled contain serious errors or omissions and often it is more time-consuming and expensive to undo and re-do what has already been done(incorrectly) than it would have been to start from scratch!

What are the main causes of errors and claims?

As time marches on we will no doubt see an increase of births to unmarried couples or single parent families which, from a research point of view, can be almost impossible to detect. The traditional methods of researching a family tree rely on the neat assumptions of marriage followed by children which simply don’t apply anymore.

The internet research resources commonly used  in compiling family tree data are notoriously inaccurate and, in virtually every case my company handles, we come across such errors in transcription which if viewed at face value could easily lead to beneficiaries not being identified or located.

Family mobility is also increasing with time and if your researcher does not have a strong international network further errors or oversights can also easily be made. We have also been told by a major insurer that they have simply had to stop issuing policies to some research companies due to the number of claims their work has generated. Another less frequent problem is the sudden appearance of a Will where the case had hitherto been assumed to be intestacy. Otherwise the practitioner may be working to a Will and a more recent one surfaces.  These can be major headaches, however, there is such a thing as Missing Will Insurance too.

Minimising the risk of claims

Proactive research is very important and by this I mean talking to the families concerned, in order to uncover all the information known to them about their family, but which may not be recorded properly or accurately on internet databases. As this is usually time-consuming it is perhaps not surprising how often such a relatively simple thing is overlooked, especially where a smaller research company or a ‘one-man band’ is concerned.

Credentials and accreditations and the additional services offered by a probate research company are often designed to minimise any risk of claims and to assist you with compliance issues. Below I have listed some simple things to look for when choosing a probate genealogist:

• Approved agency status for  a major insurer (Finders for example are tied to Aviva for our insurance work)
• Financial Services Authority registration for all insurance business.
• Professional Indemnity Insurance cover up to £1.5 million is required by the FSA and should be held by the probate genealogy firm.
• Data Protection Registration – security of data is guaranteed by registration.
• A Professional Conduct Code - probate genealogy is an unregulated industry and it is good to see  self-imposed standards in the absence of formal regulation.
• Membership of Association of Professional Genealogists or a similar body such as AGRA,  where membership means that the heir tracing company abide by their Code of Ethics.
• ISO 9001:2008 Total Quality Management is a useful indicator of a company that is concerned about its professional status.
• When intestacy is assumed, have you checked for a will? Finders, for example, offer to search for a Will, or for a more recent Will than the one in use (referred to as our Missing Will Service). This service is often free of charge and once completed may enable Missing Will Insurance to be taken out to cover against the risk of a Will being found at a later date.
• UK research  - ensure that research is conducted in-house by fully trained staff in the UK.
• Overseas agent network – if research is outside the UK check that your researcher has a network of trusted agents worldwide. Remember that a case thought not to require international searches may unexpectedly need this if a family or individual is found to have emigrated and ‘disappeared’.
• Research resources – do not rely solely on internet based sources! Finders have a vast array of research resources in-house and we often have to refer to original records to check for errors or omissions where we suspect something is wrongly recorded.  Being in London is also important as many major research institutions  are only in the capital. 

Daniel Curran has over 20 years’ experience as a professional probate genealogist and is founder and MD of Finders (www.findersUK.com) 

COMPLETIONmonitor is a sophisticated on-line checklist system that dynamically evolves based on the specific requirements of individual property transactions. From a conveyancer’s perspective, this brings risk management and order to the most exposed part of a conveyancing matter - Post Exchange and Post Completion - actively dealing with and protecting against:

• Mortgage/Property Fraud
• Missed Second Charges
• Title Registration
• Money Laundering
• Failure to Comply with Lenders Requirements

In centralising the capture of data, COMPLETIONmonitor provides a platform for managers and in particular COLPS within any firm to identify high risk cases particularly in need of attention - highlighting lender specific issues and corroborating responses to ensure law firms remain compliant.  The system collates data from the local authority search (which often contains critical information) and validates the results, cross checking against what the lawyer or conveyancer has input. 

Perhaps most importantly, technology can play a key role in fulfilling requirements to test the adequacy of compliance policies and procedures for a firm. It allows the COLP to focus on analysing results and identifying potential breaches rather than performing labor-intensive, manual reviews.

It Might Never Happen... But Just in Case

“And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will.”

Says Philip Larkin in his poem ‘Aubade’. He is referring to death but he could just as readily have been referring to the onset of old age. That, too, will happen (for most of us, anyway).

There is nothing we can do to defer it or stave it off, but we can plan ahead for it and prepare for the worst: that worst being, dementia. Of course, that may not happen. Many elderly people remain mentally acute until their dying day. But, as the population ages, it is statistically certain, that the incidence of dementia will increase.

Dementia robs you of your ability to manage your own life and means that someone else has to perform those functions for you, such as paying bills, dealing with investments and balancing budgets. A loss  of mental capacity leaves the sufferer helpless in the world and very vulnerable, unable to do even the trivial things that we all take in our stride and do several times a day.

Yes, that is a bleak outlook and until medical science produces a cure to this dreadful condition, the only thing that we can do to ensure that our affairs remain in order following the onset of dementia is to make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

A LPA is a legal instrument which allows you to appoint someone that you trust to run your affairs for you if you become unable to run them yourself. It allows you to set conditions on how that person should act and the kind of decisions that they can make on your behalf. Really, it is a kind of insurance policy and it is far better to have one and not need it, rather than need one and not have it.

We put off activities which force us to think about our inevitable future, such as preparing for death (with a will) or senility (with a LPA). Insurers Sun Life Direct recently carried out their annual survey which found that 26 per cent of people had made absolutely no plans for later life, and 87 per cent had made no care or living arrangements should they lose their independence.

Whilst this impulse to put off these unpleasant tasks is understandable, it should be resisted. If you do not have a LPA, then if you lose mental capacity the only alternative is for someone to make an application to the Court of Protection for Deputyship of your affairs – a process that is complex, expensive and over which you will have no say.

You have the power at your disposal today to make decisions in advance and protect yourself, as best you can, against the worst that tomorrow can bring.

High Street Lawyer provides fixed price Lasting Powers of Attorney from £350. For more information on Lasting Powers, visit our Frequently Asked Questions.

By David Carr of High Street Lawyer Hampstead

HighStreetLawyer.com doubles in size

Legal franchising brand HighStreetLawyer.com has doubled in size by signing up five new firms. The venture, launched in September last year, aims to have around 100 members by the end of 2012, founder Gary Yantin told the Gazette.

Yantin, a commercial lawyer, said that the network is aimed at local high street firms with three to four partners and an ‘entrepreneurial outlook’. Firms pay a membership fee, giving them the right to use the brand, back office and marketing support, access to referrals, and member services through a ‘buying club’ offering special deals on products including searches, title insurance and software.

Recent sign-ups include Ciampa in Bedford, Kingswell Berney in Gosport, Leicester firm Halborg & Co and Brown & Co in Croydon, Yantin said. He declined to name the fifth firm.

Yantin described the scheme as a ‘brandchise’, saying: ‘It’s more about branding and licensing than a franchise.’ He likened it to the operating model of brands such as Interflora, Best Western Hotels and independent electrical supplier Euronics.

Michael Vaughan, senior partner at Kingswell Berney, said: ‘We are pleased to join HighStreetLawyer.com because that is exactly what we have been for 75 years for people and businesses of the southern counties.

‘By joining this national network, we can continue and extend our services to be the complete personal high street lawyer with confidence in the brand.’

Yantin said he was not daunted by recent announcements of new funding raised by larger rival QualitySolicitors, or by the Co-operative’s decision to offer family law services. He said: ‘We view our competition not as the Co-op, but as everyone providing legal services. It’s great that QualitySolicitors has raised money because it shows that people want to invest in the industry.

‘But these two ventures and the fact that others might have a deeper war chest doesn’t affect our ambitions or plans. It shows there’s room in the market for legal brands, independent firms and non-lawyer brands like the Co-op.’

This article first appeared in the Law Society Gazette and on the Gazette's website on Thursday 21 November

Other HighStreetLawyer news: HighStreetLawyer builds national network

For a profile of our MD Gary Yantin in City AM click here:http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity