Compliance & Regulation

More than a quarter (27%) of complaints made to the Legal Ombudsman are outside the new time limits introduced at the beginning of April, it has emerged.

A solicitor has been struck off after redacting witness statements to cover up actions he had taken, including agreeing that his client would pay costs, without her knowledge.

The diversity of the legal services sector means the one-size-fits-all approach to professional indemnity insurance adopted by its regulators “may not be the most appropriate”.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has reprimanded a law firm after a cyber-attack led to a data breach and four fraudulent payments being made on a probate matter.

A veteran solicitor who borrowed £25,000 from a client to help prop up his firm and then tried to hide it from the Solicitors Regulation Authority as fees paid on account has been struck off.

The boss of Axiom Ince, the law firm that recently bought both Ince & Co and Plexus Legal out of administration, is under investigation by the SRA for possible dishonesty.

CILEX has unveiled plans to introduce new ‘chartered lawyer’ and ‘chartered litigator’ titles at the same time as switching regulator from CILEx Regulation Ltd to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The risks and consequences arising from non-disclosure agreements are routinely underestimated and rarely explored by solicitors, a major review has found.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal expects to see more cases involving “toxic and anachronistic” work cultures, and more appeals against the SRA’s use of its higher fining powers.

The boss of the SRA said today that the decision to shut down three law firms caught in a Daily Mail undercover sting had nothing to do with the political pressure that followed.