Although we first reported its demise back on 7th April this year, Peter Garner of the English Law Society has now confirmed that the 2009 edition of the Software Solutions Guide will be the last for the forseeable future. In an email sent out at noon today he writes...

Dear recipient

As you are all well aware the planning for the Software Solutions Guide is normally in full swing by this point in the year.

I know there have been rumours abound about the potential of not running the Guide for 2010 but this is the first formal word on the situation.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that there will not be a Software Solutions Guide for 2010.  The economic slow down along side the considerable reduction in the number of vendors eligible to enter the Guide means that the Guide is no longer viable in its current guise.

I hope that it will be possible to re-work the Guide as a whole, broaden its remit and freshen its approach in order to deliver an ongoing service to the legal profession.*  However this is not a possibility for 2009/10 as I'm yet to identify what and how.

I realise that you have all given a lot of time and energy to the Guide over the years - in many cases, many years - and I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for your contributions.

Thank you again for your support.

Best regards


* In fact the Law Society has been talking about revamping the guide since about 2001.