Private Client
Solicitor used LPA to steal cash from vulnerable client
A solicitor who stole cash from a vulnerable client using her debit card while acting under a lasting power of attorney has been struck off.
Neill urges Probate Service to share more data with lawyers
The Probate Service needs to share more data about its performance so that lawyers can manage client expectations, the outgoing chair of the justice select committee has said.
Use of solicitors for wills falls but firms get better at cross-selling
The proportion of people using a solicitor for their will has continued to fall and is now down to 50%, five percentage points lower than in 2019, a report has found.
“We bit off more than we could chew” with court reforms, minister admits
Justice minister Mike Freer has admitted to MPs that the government “bit off more than we could chew” with its £1.3bn court modernisation programme.
Big fine for firm that failed to replace client money wrongly paid out
A Norwich law firm has been fined £121,000 for failing for eight years to replace client money which it had wrongly paid out to beneficiaries of an estate.
Digitising probate without new rules “an expensive mistake”
Digitising the Probate Service without modernising the rules was “an expensive mistake”, a senior solicitor has told MPs investigating delays in the service.
Probate manager jailed after stealing £634k from two law firms
A probate manager who took £634,000 from estates while working at two law firms has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to charges of fraud by abuse of position and money laundering.
Probate delays “have made clients suicidal”, MPs told
Probate delays have left some clients feeling suicidal because they are running out of money, the head of a leading probate provider has told MPs on the justice select committee.
Law firm £1.3m negligence saga “does not reflect well on profession”
A City law firm has failed to strike out a £1.3m negligence claim arising from a discretionary trust it set up for a man described by a High Court judge as “serially let down” by the profession.
Probate delays putting law firms in clients’ firing line
Law firms are suffering a backlash from clients, and increasing unbillable time, as a result of the continuing delays at the Probate Service, the Law Society has said.
Blog
The real cure for inequality at law firms? Listening
How can men, as one male panellist put it, “get out of the way of people coming up through the ranks?”
Most of these conversations only happen after the men leave the room.
Andy Burnham and the Hillsborough Law: should solicitors be worried?
Now that Andy Burnham has become prime minister, the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, otherwise known as the Hillsborough Law, will receive a real boost of political capital.
Defending fair fees in the property profession
If the property industry is serious about moving towards 28-day exchanges, then it must confront not only the practical barriers, but the commercial behaviours too.
