Compliance & Regulation
LSB tells regulators to get moving with ongoing competence reform
The legal regulators have been given six months to deliver action plans to the Legal Services Board on how they are going to reform their regimes to ensure lawyers’ ongoing competence.
LSB backs huge cut in time limit for complaining to Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Services Board has, after “very extensive debate”, backed a cut in the time limit for complaining to the Legal Ombudsman from six years to only one year.
Ban for PI fee-earner who used Covid as excuse for missing deadlines
A fee-earner at Slater & Gordon who falsely claimed he had missed litigation deadlines because of scanning errors and not being in the office due to the pandemic has been banned from working in law firms.
Solicitor told trainee to draft misleading defence to barrister’s fee claim
A solicitor who told a trainee to draft an “incorrect and misleading” defence to an unpaid fees claim from a barrister – which ignored his firm’s liability for the money – has been fined £7,500.
Solicitors at incorporated firms should not give personal undertakings
Lawyers at incorporated law firms should not give personal undertakings even though the corporate undertakings are not enforceable, the Law Society has said.
Solicitor who considered herself “beyond regulation” is struck off
A solicitor who made false and misleading statements on applications for professional indemnity insurance has been struck off and ordered to pay costs of over £124,000.
Regulator threatens legal action over CILEX talks with SRA
CILEx Regulation could take legal action following the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives’ announcement that it is talking to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about becoming its regulator.
Legal Ombudsman on track to halve backlog by March 2023
The Legal Ombudsman is on course to meet its goal of halving the backlog of cases waiting for investigation by March 2023, with its output increasing significantly, the chief ombudsman has said.
Be careful when ex-clients seek ‘one-off’ advice, CA warns solicitors
Solicitors responding to ‘one-off’ requests for information or advice from former or potential clients need to identify the limits of their engagement to avoid negligence claims, the Court of Appeal has warned.
CILEX begins talks over transferring regulation of members to SRA
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has begun formal talks with the Solicitors Regulation Authority about taking over the regulation of its members.
Blog
The new metrics for success in conveyancing
While technology has made much of the conveyancing process faster, there remains a practical limit to how many matters anyone can manage while still keeping standards intact.
The UK legal market is polarising – and the middle is disappearing
Consolidation and the boutique boom are not contradictory. They are the same market stretching apart at both ends – and it changes what your firm is worth, and to whom.
Conveyancing’s consistency problem is about pressure, not skills
When I qualified, a conveyancer had perhaps 10 or 12 plates to keep spinning. Today’s conveyancers have 20 or 30, and almost none of the room for error I had starting out.
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