The essential guide to conduct, compliance and competence, and the Legal Services Act
Accounts rules
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.
Tories pledge early action to consolidate client accounts to earn interest for legal aid
The Conservatives will move quickly if elected to consult on plans to consolidate all solicitor client accounts in one place and apply the interest that accrues to the legal aid fund, Legal Futures can reveal.
Accounting for success
Alison Gorringe, chief executive of the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators, looks at some of the issues around the Solicitors Accounts Rules, such as what to do with small balances left over on a file.
   |
Associate News
Demystifying the banking process – what your bank looks for in your firm
QualitySolicitors Keith Park implements Peppermint Portal
David Thorpe joins fast-growing technology innovator Peppermint Technology
DAS appoints head of marketing
Take client interaction to the next level with the Peppermint Platform
LexisNexis Visualfiles Helps Essex Legal Services deliver savings for the Public Law Partnership
Roadshow highlights potential perils of new COLP/COFA roles
