News

Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority is back. This weekly column of dilemmas answered by the professional ethics team at the SRA looks at the very topical issue of a lender asking solicitors for details of client back account statements as part of a panel review.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has shown a lack of understanding and judgement, and an unwillingness to listen to the approved regulators, the Bar Council has claimed. The Bar Council also expressed surprise at plans to increase LSB staff costs at a time of public sector cuts – saying it should take a “Big Society” approach to its work – and also questioned whether the board is overextending its remit.

The Bar Standards Board last night delayed the introduction of an aptitude test for asprising bar students – which it had hoped to do this year – by 12 months. The test assesses analytical and critical reasoning, and fluency in the English language.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is under pressure to ban solicitors from offering potential claimants up-front inducements to bring an action so as to bring them in line with new rules coming into force for claims management companies.

Clients are expressing much more concern about the way the largest UK law firms are managing risk than before – and than the firms’ own lawyers, a survey has found. While just 21% of lawyers perceived risk management to be a “key priority”, 47% of clients thought it was.

The High Court has expressed surprise that the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal does not publish guidance on the sanctions it might impose, in a judgment overturning fines levied against four partners at a firm where a member of staff stole over £100,000. The case should give “encouragement to those who have been poorly treated by the tribunal”, it has been claimed.

A former major in the Army has launched a brokerage for alternative business structures, bidding to put law firms together with private equity investors. He predicts that it will be commoditised practices run along corporate lines that will most likely attract external investment.

City firms, conveyancers and other sectors of the legal profession could seek their own sector-specific regulation if the Law Society fails to approve the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become an alternative business structures regulator, SRA chairman Charles Plant warned today.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating whether to provide consumers with guideline price ranges for legal services, it has confirmed. The move follows a call to provide better information to clients about solicitors’ services.

A solicitor involved with failed claims handler The Accident Group is to appeal against a High Court order to strike him off, after it ruled that a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal decision to impose a fine was too lenient.