The new caring, sharing Solicitors Regulation Authority issued a caring, sharing press release shortly before Christmas. Entitled “Take care with vulnerable clients, SRA urges”, it admonished solicitors “to ensure they pay close attention to clients’ needs from the outset to make sure they deliver a proper standard of service”. It is one of the most patronising things I have seen from the SRA.

Samantha Barrass, executive director of supervision, risk and standards at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, responds to Michaela Hardwicke’s blog last week, The scary new world of OFR, to argue that the SRA has prepared the profession for the new regulatory environment and outlines how it expects to engage with firms in the future.

What do you get when you have 60 solicitors in a room discussing outcomes-focused regulation? You get concern, frustration, cynicism, lack of trust and an overwhelming desire for answers and solutions. There was not only a natural desire to understand and comply with the new regulatory regime but also a huge amount of frustration over the lack of guidance from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

We may be in an era of outcomes-focused regulation, but nobody thought to tell those who drew up the deal between the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority over their governance arrangements. To me it is further evidence that the arrangement by which the SRA is both independent and yet part of the Law Society is unlikely to stand the test of time

Introducing work to others is a common part of business life – just another cost that businesses incur in ‘selling’ their product. Law firms incur plenty of costs this way. So, asks Barbara Hamilton-Bruce, why is it different for claims management companies? Is their behaviour so abhorrent that the government should consider banning it?