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Proceed with care

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02 March 2012 / Deborah Evans
Issue: 7503 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services
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Deborah Evans warns against too much change, too soon

Too much change, too quickly, is dangerous. While there are many areas the government would like to reform, it is not necessary or sensible to do it all within the same year. The government should be urged to proceed with care, understanding the impact of each change before imposing the next, and asking itself regularly whether further change is necessary.

As well as the sweeping reforms of conditional fee agreements (CFAs) in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill, and the removal of legal aid for clinical negligence, personal injury lawyers face the impact of the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs), the ban on referral fees, review of fixed fees, destruction of the after-the-event insurance market, and just to top it off nicely an extension of the road traffic accident (RTA) portal coupled with a couple of new portals to help control David Cameron’s perceived health and safety “monster”.

Referral fee ban unworkable?

ABSs (such as the Co-op) will

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