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27 July 2012 / Richard Moorhead
Issue: 7524 / Categories: Features , Legal services
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A legal rollercoaster

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Which way is the legal services market going, asks Richard Moorhead

The Legal Services Board have produced an interesting report (Market impacts of the legal services act–interim baseline report) seeking to bring together research and data on the market the legal services in England and Wales. It draws on data between 2006/07–2010/11. The report acknowledges that in a lot of the areas that the Board would like to have information, there are gaps. Nevertheless, the research that is pulled together here provides an interesting view of how the legal services market has been developing over the last four years.

Contraction

One of the most interesting elements of the report is the way it has evidenced the contraction in the legal services market. In 2010/2011, residential conveyancing was running at 54% of 2006/2007 levels. The figure for remortgaging was 28%. In broad terms, the market has halved. Demand for probate services fell to 70% of 2006/2007 levels. The level of family proceedings was largely static (although they are unable to say anything about

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
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Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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