BT today announces the launch of BT Law, a business that will provide legal services to corporate customers, initially in the motor claims market, having been awarded a licence to operate from the industry watchdog the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA).

The SRA has awarded BT an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licence, effective from March 2013. With the ABS licence, BT Law will incorporate BT Claims, an already well-known name in the motor claims management industry, which handles more than 35,000 corporate fleet vehicles.

BT Law will offer an in-house, end-to-end motor claims solution for businesses from incident notification, through investigation and resolution and now including full litigation management.

It plans to grow over the coming years and, based on market demand for further services, will look to expand selectively into additional areas, such as public liability and employment law for corporate customers.

The business will work closely with BT Fleet, another subsidiary of BT, which provides fleet management, vehicle maintenance and accident management to corporate customers who operate some of the UK’s most mission-critical fleets.

The new business unit will have offices in three locations: London, Bletchley and Sheffield. It will be headed by Miles Jobling, who will become director of BT Law. Jobling is an experienced solicitor and will continue as the head of litigation and employment law for the BT Group.

Samantha Barrass, executive director at the SRA, said: “BT Law is a welcome addition to the legal services market.

“The SRA has now licensed more than 100 ABSs and this number continues to grow, which means more choice for customers.”

Jobling added: “The advent of ABS has changed forever the whole landscape of legal services.

“With our experience and market credibility we had already built a team with significant legal and claims handling expertise.

“This licence now gives us the perfect platform to take this much further forward and means we can deliver whole new areas of support for our existing clients as well as hopefully developing many new relationships.

“As we carry the BT name we understand just how important it is to best represent and protect our clients’ brands, which will remain as a main component of our service strategy.”

The launch of BT Law and granting of an ABS licence follows on from BT’s recent acquisition of Tikit, a company that provides technology solutions and services to legal and accountancy firms.