Private Client
Raab eyes “drastic action” to keep family disputes out of court
Justice secretary Dominic Raab is “in the market for something quite drastic and bold” to reduce the number of private law family cases in the courts, he said yesterday in a wide-ranging discussion.
Solicitor suspended for “dumping” hours on file to meet billing targets
A solicitor who “dumped” hundreds of hours of unjustified time on a largely completed file in a bid to meet his billing targets has been suspended for nine months.
LSB approves new regulator for accountant probate providers
The Legal Services Board has approved CILEx Regulation’s application to take over the regulation of probate work carried on by members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Law Society attacks plan to end witnessing of LPAs
The Law Society has attacked plans to replace witnessing of lasting powers of attorney with electronic signatures and also force solicitors to use a digital portal.
Solicitor who “considered herself to be the client” is struck off
A solicitor “considered herself to be the client” while operating under a lasting power of attorney, sending bills to herself and massively overcharging the elderly client involved.
Solicitor who stole £275,000 from client’s estate struck off
A solicitor who abused his position as the executor of an estate and stole £275,000 from it to spend on an “excessive lifestyle” has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
LSB delays decision on new breed of accountant probate providers
The Legal Services Board has given itself more time to decide on whether to approve a new breed of law firm created by CILEx Regulation and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Accountants doing probate work failing on price transparency
Chartered accountants handling probate work are to face compulsory rules on publishing price and service information after their regulator admitted a voluntary approach had not worked.
Digital LPAs to be registered in two weeks under reform plan
The government has outlined plans to streamline and digitise lasting powers of attorney, cutting the time needed for registration in most cases from 40 to 14 days.
Establishing fraudulent calumny – has the mind of the testator been ‘poisoned’?
There are a number of grounds upon which a person might seek to a challenge the will of a loved one. They include circumstances where the specific formalities required when creating a will are not adhered to, or where the person making the will did not have the necessary mental capacity. It might be that the person making the will did not understand or approve its contents or that they were subject to some form of undue influence by another party. One of the less common grounds potentially available to someone wishing to challenge a will is that of fraudulent calumny.
Blog
From text to world: The legal significance of multimodal AI
The next phase of AI, already underway, will integrate text with vision, sound, motion and even touch. This will produce systems that no longer ‘read about’ the world but perceive it.
The new leaders of law
Where once many law firm owners remained technology sceptics, a growing number are now shaped by leaders who are digitally fluent and commercially oriented.
Managing lock-up, cash flow and billing inefficiencies better
If law firms view lock-up, cash flow and billing processes as key indicators of financial performance – and therefore risk – they can identify problems early.
