The essential guide to conduct, compliance and competence, and the Legal Services Act
Accounts rules
Firms “need to develop” whistleblowing and client account interest policies
Law firms need to establish policies on whistleblowing and the interest they pay to clients, according to a leading regulatory solicitor. Other key issues troubling firms include preparing a business plan and compliance with provisions on outsourcing.
COLP and COFA nomination process to begin “within six weeks”, says SRA
The form that allows law firms to nominate their compliance officers for legal practice and for finance and administration should go live in the next six weeks, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday, while also revealing some of the information it will require about them.
Getting your client-care letters right
Lisa Dixon from the Institute of Legal Finance & Management argues that firms should consider issuing separate terms and conditions with their client-care letters that deal specifically with the issues around client funds.
Record number of solicitors struck off or suspended
A record number of solicitors have been either struck off or suspended, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revealed. However, the number of solicitors appearing before the tribunal has dropped sharply, possibly because of the SRA’s new powers to issue sanctions itself.
Client account interest safe as legal aid lawyers face £430m income cut
The government today dropped the idea of creaming off interest from solicitors’ client accounts to offset the cost of legal aid. The decision will come as a small consolation to legal aid law firms, which the Ministry of Justice impact assessment says will earn, along with barristers, £430m less from legal aid than they do now.
Getting debt management right
In the first of a regular series of articles from the Institute of Legal Finance and Management (formerly the Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators), Lisa Dixon outlines the strategies law firms should be adopting to ensure they manage their debts properly
Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators steps up bid to become regulatory body
The Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators is to change its name to the Institute of Legal Finance and Management as it steps up its bid to become a regulatory body and have a member of staff in every legal practice qualified in legal accounting.
Can you spare a tenner?
This week’s Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority looks at whether a firm can unilaterally dispose of a small amount left in client account.
Accountants “failing in solicitor duties” – an update
Just 11 accountants have blown the whistle on their solicitor clients over concerns about fraud, theft or other conduct that may render them unfit to hold client money, as required by the Solicitors Accounts Rules, it has emerged. Blowing the whistle became an obligation, rather than an encouragement, just over a year ago.
Accountants “failing in solicitor duties”
Many accountants are failing both to qualify their reports and to blow the whistle on solicitors’ wrongdoing, the chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales’ solicitors group said last week. Only 35% of accountants’ reports are qualified – despite the intricate nature of the rules – while hardly any accountants have blown the whistle a year after the rules were changed to require it.
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Associate News
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