Jackson reforms persuade new ABS to look beyond personal injury

A specialist personal injury firm is to relaunch as a mixed practice ABS next month, prompted by implementation of the Jackson reforms in 2013.

Kayes solicitors is currently a sole practice specialising in personal injury, based in Pudsey, Yorkshire, and Bristol. The new firm, Pudsey Legal, will have three directors – Paul Kaye and two non-lawyers, Andrew Cummings and Nigel Beck.

“We’ve done it to meet the challenges that lie ahead,” Beck said. “The marketplace is changing, particularly for personal injury law, and we felt that the time was right to spread our wings and offer a true High Street service.

“Things are becoming ever more competitive, with LASPO just around the corner. Solicitors are competing with larger organisations like the Co-op, and for smaller firms the market will be extremely difficult.

“Small firms will still have a place in the personal injury market, but will have to be remodelled and realigned.”

Beck said ABS status would give Pudsey Legal the chance to explore in the future “opportunities with any organisations in the personal injury market, bearing in mind the ban on referral fees”. However, he said the firm wanted to stay independent.

“We want to go our own way,” Beck said. “We’re aware of QualitySolicitors and the Co-op, but we’ve made a conscious decision to plough our own furrow and be masters of our own destiny”.

Beck added that the firm had recently recruited three solicitors to head the new probate, family and conveyancing departments.

In a separate development, AAG Legal Services, part of Mayfair wealth management firm AAG, has obtained an ABS licence.

AAG Legal Services specialises in wills and trusts, inheritance tax planning and conveyancing.

It is described on its website as a market leader in financial and property advice, with a “significant client base of high net worth individuals” including “famous names from big business to show business in equal measure”.