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The High Court has rejected the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s bid to increase the sanction imposed on a solicitor convicted of transferring criminal property after being taken in by a charismatic conman posing as the Pope’s banker. She was fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Law Society has praised the government’s “decisive action” in introducing fixed costs in holiday sickness claims, and put the blame for fraudulent cases on claims management companies. Meanwhile, ABTA has urged the industry to maintain the momentum on its ‘Stop Sickness Scams’ campaign.

The Bar Standards Board is considering the impact of the HM Courts and Tribunal Service’s proposals for longer sitting hours on the diversity of the profession, the only legal regulator so far to take a step, however tentative, into an issue that has generated bitter opposition from the profession.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to change its indemnity insurance rules to make it easier for law firms to switch regulator, it announced yesterday. In a bid to encourage competition, the SRA will ditch the requirement that firms switching to another approved regulator have to buy run-off cover.

A former Solicitor General has contrasted government pressure on the Solicitors Regulation Authority to prosecute human rights firm Leigh Day with its hands-off approach to solicitors criticised by Parliament for advising companies on tax avoidance.

London law firm Gordon Dadds has agreed the reverse takeover that will see it become a listed company and outlined an ambitious acquisition strategy to double its £25m revenue over the next three years by becoming a “major consolidator” of both top 200 law firms and also smaller practices through a back-office platform that it has developed.

The Law Commission has set its sights on England and Wales becoming the first major jurisdiction in the world to allow electronic wills by proposing that the Lord Chancellor is given the power to introduce them by statutory instrument. It has also proposed giving the courts the power to treat a document as a will where the formalities are not followed.

A couple who became ill after a holiday in Egypt have won what it is believed to be the first court victory since the appeal judges’ ruling in Wood v TUI Travel at the start of this year. But, at the same time, Thomas Cook has claimed a victory of its own by winning a declaration that two claimants had been fundamentally dishonest in their sickness claims.

A solicitor who “misused his position and duped his business partner” – leading to the SRA Compensation Fund paying about nearly £170,000 – has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. In one instance, the second partner had withdrawn £21,000 from the firm’s bank and brought it back to the office in her handbag.

Smaller law firms specialising in insolvency work will be hit with a double whammy as Brexit favours big firms that can keep debt recovery costs down, while an Online Court will make it easier for litigants in person to pursue claims, a report has predicted. But the overall picture for law firms handling insolvency work was bright, it said.