Private Client
Solicitor fails in appeal against rebuke for estate administration delays
A solicitor rebuked by the SRA for “substantial and unexplained delay” in the administration of an estate has failed in an appeal to the SDT.
Solicitor transforms firm into “probate unblocking” service
A private client solicitor has transformed his law firm into a specialist fixed-fee service which aims to unblock stalled probate matters.
Rebuke for solicitor “who relied on memory, not records”
A law firm owner who acted “based on her recollections as opposed to checking facts” has been rebuked after letting administration of an estate drift for six years.
Suspension for solicitor who let work as deputy drift for 16 years
A solicitor who acted as a deputy for 16 years and did little to protect her client’s interests in that time has been suspended from practice for six months.
Solicitor rebuked for continuing to act when clients were in dispute
A solicitor who continued to act for both executors of an estate after a dispute arose between them has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Big spike in conveyancing complaints to Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman has reported a 41% increase in the number of complaints about conveyancing, driven by delays, poor communication and post-completion problems.
Angry family member in contempt for threatening probate solicitors
A man who threatened to “beat the shit” out of solicitors who acted as administrators of his aunt’s will has been found in contempt of court by the High Court.
Justice committee calls for quadrupling of probate fee threshold
MPs have called on the Ministry of Justice to increase the minimum threshold at which estates must pay probate application fees from £5,000 to £20,000.
Probate firms form partnership to formalise succession plan
A specialist private client law firm in the Midlands has launched a model to help other practices facing succession issues after announcing a deal with a probate firm in Plymouth.
Partner suffers AI-generated abuse after asking for a fee
A potential client has used AI to abuse a partner at a Bristol law firm, accusing her of being a “loathsome criminal” for wanting to charge for a consultation.
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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