If you have a minute to spare and fancy checking up on your latest legal rights Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has launched an online ‘fact or fiction’ quiz to debunk legal myths surrounding family law, personal injury, probate and wills.
The CLS, which after the Legal Services Act came into force in 2011 swiftly positioned itself as far more ‘Tesco Law’ than Tesco, gives ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers together with an explanation to a number of simple statements such as “I do not need a will because I am married and my spouse will get everything anyway,” or “I cannot make a claim on my personal injury because the time limit has expired.”
Samantha Hickman, head of family law at CLS said: “We understand that there is a great deal of confusion in the industry and for that reason we are intending to debunk some of the misconceptions and myths in circulation.
“It’s really important that people understand their rights and make fully informed decisions. It is thought that there is little transparency in the industry and so we hope that our debunking legal myths online game will help to inform the public about these everyday common misconceptions.”
The CLS, which has is part of the drastically restructured Co-operative Group, saw its revenue drop by almost a third in 2014 from £33m to £23m due to its own restructuring and a decline in personal injury work – a result of restrictions on referral fees.
However, in its interim report for 2015, Co-operative Group announced that CLS had made a small profit of £200,000 for the first half of 2015, thanks to restructuring, focussing on its core family values, improving its processes and investing in technology.
The CLS has recently boosted its senior legal team and in October Anthony Wilson, a former Hill Dickinson partner, joined CLS as head of personal injury from 2020 Legal. Other recent senior appointments saw NewLaw Solicitors’ head of operations Rob Heaton join as head of probate operations and Sam Hickman become head of the family law practice, joining from Clarke Wilmott.
