Lawyers have launched an online petition in an attempt to apply public pressure on banks to settle compensation claims for financial product mis-selling.

The petition launched on Friday calls on the government to create a financial services tribunal that would resolve “customer disputes”.

Behind the campaign is LEXLAW, a firm of solicitors and barristers based in Middle Temple. It is acting for Wenta – whose chairman won the Queen’s Lifetime Achievement for Enterprise Promotion last year – which claims that RBS has failed to pay up for allegedly mis-selling a complicated financial product that went wrong.

The petition states that “major banks and other financial services institutions are often in dispute with customers who deserve protection. Access to court is costly. The Financial Ombudsman scheme is inadequate. The Financial Conduct Authority is not equipped to resolve disputes. Tribunals offer scrutiny, justice and censure which deters misconduct."

LEXLAW opened the petition after a debate on Friday of a private member’s bill in the House of Commons in which MPs were encouraged to support the creation of a “commercial financial dispute resolution platform”

“Only a tiny fraction of financial services disputes are ever litigated,” Mr M Ali Akram, principal lawyer at LEXLAW, said. “And the vast majority of good litigation cases settle, which means there is a lack of meaningful court precedents to force financial services institutions to deal with disputes fairly.”

A man aged 101 who was found guilty of 21 sexual offences on Friday is thought to be the oldest person convicted in the British courts.

Ralph Clarke will be sentenced today after being convicted at Birmingham crown court of multiple incidents of indecent assault and indecency with a child.

The jury heard that Clarke, from Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, committed the offences between 1974 and 1983, abusing three victims at his home, in his garden shed and in a lorry.

Prosecutors said that the decision to proceed with the case against such an elderly defendant was taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors. They said that his age and wellbeing were “considered, but given the serious nature of the offences, breach of trust and vulnerability of the young victims, it was decided that a prosecution was in the public interest”.

Claire Nicholls, a senior lawyer at the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said that “for over 40 years Clarke thought that he had got away with his crimes. Due to the courage of the victims we were able to bring him to justice and I would like to thank them for their support throughout this difficult and sensitive prosecution”.

One of the UK’s biggest law firm brands is to become a transatlantic operation after striking a merger deal with an Atlanta practice, it was announced on Friday.

Eversheds – which has more than 50 outposts across the UK and internationally – will merge with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan in a deal that will create a practice that has 2,300 lawyers.

It is estimated that the combined annual revenues for the two firms will be more than £562 million, putting it in the world’s top 40 legal businesses by turnover. The British side of the equation will easily be the dominant play, with Eversheds clocking up revenues of more than £400 million last year.

The deal, which will result in 61 offices in 29 countries, will be formally completed on February 1.

The firms said on Friday that they were approaching the deal as equals and would be known in all jurisdictions as Eversheds Sutherland. Initially the firm will have joint chief executives, with the British side expected to be filled by Lee Ranson from May.

A DJ from Liverpool was sentenced on Friday to a year in prison for illegally distributing chart hits online in what prosecutors described as a milestone in their battle against online pirates.

Wayne Evans, 39, was found guilty of piracy that potentially cost the music industry millions of pounds and deprived artists of payment for their work. Evans had pleaded guilty to the charges in October.

It is the first prison sentence to be handed down as a result of a joint investigation between PRS for Music, the body that licenses the playing and performing of copyrighted music, and the City of London police’s intellectual property crime unit.

“Music piracy on a commercial scale is a serious criminal offence and this sentencing by the crown court acknowledges that,” Simon Bourn, head of litigation at PRS, said. “We hope that today’s sentencing sends a message to all those involved in this type of criminal activity that consequences will follow.”

Detective Constable Steven Kettle, of the City of London police, added that the “sentencing will suggest to others that illegally distributing music is not without its consequences. Evans caused significant loss to the music industry and his actions will have affected jobs across the music industry".

A Queen’s Counsel from a Birmingham chambers has become the latest lawyer embroiled in scandal, for stroking a woman’s thigh in a bar.

John Randall, QC – who was called to the Bar nearly 40 years ago – was slapped with a £2,000 fine from the profession's regulator after he “made sexual advances” to a woman two years ago.

According to a judgment handed down last week and published by the Bar Standards Board, a tribunal found that Randall made the advances without consent at a bar in Creaton, Northamptonshire “by repeatedly touching and stroking [the woman’s] thigh”.

The commercial law barrister from the Birmingham branch of St Philips chambers was reprimanded as well as fined. The ruling is open to appeal.

Randall’s case comes on the heels of two other prominent incidents of lawyers behaving badly. The Times reported that several days ago John Burnand, a partner at the law firm Winckworth Sherwood, resigned after apologising for having groped several female colleagues at the firm’s Christmas party.

It also recently emerged that Nicholas West, an insurance law specialist, had left the City law firm Ince & Co in October after allegedly “attacking” a partner from his previous firm, Kennedys, during a lunch at the annual rugby sevens tournament in Dubai.

Rapist officer’s victims sue over police failures – The Times

Apple digs in for appeal over €13bn tax ruling – The Times

Mid-tier law firms struggle to turn profits – Law Gazette

Top Kirkland partners see cuts to equity shares – Legal Week

Buyers win legal battle over unfinished Spanish homes – The Times

Demand for free legal advice spiralling upwards, charity reports – Legal Futures