Compliance & Regulation

Costs disputes between solicitors and their clients worth up to £50,000 should be dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman and not the courts, the Civil Justice Council has proposed.

A beefed-up continuing competence regime for solicitors, including mandatory record-keeping and discussions about ethics has been laid out by the SRA.

The Court of Appeal has made amendments to its Mazur ruling to make clear that law firms are not at risk of committing a criminal offence through inadequate supervision of unauthorised persons.

National law firm Taylor Rose has been fined £160,000 for multiple breaches, including residual balances held for up to seven years and not self-reporting to the SRA.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority should consider commissioning an independent KC to review its approach to prosecuting SLAPPs, a leading media lawyer has argued.

The Law Society has decided against trying to appeal last month’s Court of Appeal ruling in Mazur, it has confirmed to Legal Futures.

There should be more effort to help candidates and others understand why multiple-choice questions are used in the SQE, its independent reviewer has suggested.

The Legal Services Board has reversed its plan to reduce its budget and instead approved a small increase, amounting to an extra £1.79 on every authorised lawyer’s practising fees.

The SRA’s investigation into PM Law “involves a sophisticated suspected fraud”, with the improper removal and misuse of £39.5m of client funds.

Personal injury solicitors who jack up their base costs to ensure they always hit the 25% cap on deductions from damages risk referral to the SRA, a senior district judge has warned.