Compliance & Regulation

A tribunal has found that a law firm did not have its client’s consent to place a restriction on her property in lieu of unpaid fees.

The Legal Ombudsman has been given a budget for its next financial year that it says will not be sufficient to meet its operational or strategic needs.

New requirements to strengthen ethical standards now expressly state that lawyers must place their duties to the court and to act with independence, above acting in the best interests of their client.

MPs yesterday grilled the prospective chair of the Legal Services Board over a potential conflict of interest with her existing role as chair of King’s Counsel Appointments.

A solicitor who signed a deed as a witness to a signature when she had not actually been present has escaped being struck off.

Only 24% of Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal cases concluded within six months last year, according to new figures from the organisation.

A Liverpool law firm ordered to bear the cost of redeeming a client’s mortgage because of mistakes made in a conveyancing matter is among eight named by the Legal Ombudsman.

A law firm paid away £2.5m in client monies without instruction and also forged its client’s signature on multiple documents, the High Court has decided.

A junior solicitor who told clients, colleagues and others that she had submitted applications for grants of probate when she had not, has been struck off.

The High Court has rejected an appeal by a solicitor suspended for a year for engaging in “persistent, abusive litigation conduct”.