Other lawyers
Trading Standards publishes guidance on conveyancing referral fees
The clock on a possible ban on referral fees from lawyers to estate agents has started running after new guidance on disclosure was published by National Trading Standards.
Unqualified adviser admits acting for 200 clients
A man who admitted acting for 200 clients who wrongly believed he was qualified to give them immigration law advice is one of three such offenders to be sentenced recently.
CILEx targets total independence for regulator
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has become the first approved legal regulator to announce its intention to give its regulatory body complete structural independence.
Panel questions future of underperforming regulator
The position of the smaller legal regulators has been thrust into the spotlight, with the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel suggesting that one may be at risk of losing its right to regulate.
Regulators “must be pressured” to publish lawyers’ disciplinary records
The Legal Services Board is not putting enough pressure on the frontline regulators to publish details of lawyers’ disciplinary records on their online registers, it has been claimed.
SRA “not sufficiently transparent” in explaining decisions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is “not sufficiently transparent” in explaining its decisions at board level, the Legal Services Board has said, while ticking off other regulators too.
What transparency? Only 28% of websites show prices
The profession has a long way to go to meet the new price and service transparency requirements, with just 28% of firms compliant or close to compliant, our research has found.
Quarter of conveyancers “not transparent” on fees
A quarter of consumers believe their lawyer was “not transparent” on conveyancing fees, new research has shown on the day new price and service transparency rules come into force.
New rules to bolster legal regulators’ independence
New rules which clearly limit the influence the Law Society can have on the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the Bar Council on the Bar Standards Board, have been published.
LSB: Regulators making “good progress” on publishing prices
The frontline regulators are making “very good progress” in improving price transparency, the Legal Services Board has said – but its consumer panel was far less impressed.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
