By James Boxell & Philip Hoult
The UK's largest internet access provider, retail giant Dixons, is teaming up with leading commercial set 11 Stone Buildings and software company Epoch to provide a national online legal service.
The move is part of a boom in online legal services, coming in the same week that Linklaters unveiled the first addition to its Blue Flag online advice service.
Under the joint venture, barristers at 11 Stone Buildings have prepared a wide range of electronic templates that will enable the public to build customised legal documents through an internet browser.
The service will be aimed at small companies and individuals. Online clients will be charged £25 for each document they create. They will also be given e-mail access to a national network of law firms for further legal advice.
Dixons' involvement could have a major impact as the retail company is – through its Freeserve service – the UK's market leader in providing internet access, with about 1.5 million subscribers.
Epoch refused to confirm Dixons' involvement but Legal Week understands that the company has similar agreements with a number of large internet service providers and search engine manufacturers.
Denying that the system would replace solicitors' work, Jonathan Arkush, an 11 Stone Buildings barrister involved in the project, said: "The system enables solicitors to be much more efficient – they will be able to do a greater volume of work for more clients."
He also stressed that clients would have clear warnings that the documents were only templates and that it was vital for them to get legal advice directly from a solicitor.
This week Linklaters launched its first addition to its Blue Flag online advice service, targeting investment fund managers with a new service called Blue Flag Funds.
It is also building two other systems to deal with shareholding disclosures and a custody module.
Next month the world's first virtual arbitration service will be launched by a group of 50 barristers – mainly made up of judges and ex-judges from the Midlands and Oxford circuit.
The service was formed in readiness for the predicted boom in alternative dispute resolution work brought on by the Woolf reforms.
(For full details see IT, page 14)