Regulation

Barristers can act as professional property and affairs deputies for people who lack mental capacity, although it is not seen as a legal service, the Court of Protection has ruled.

A woman who operated an Indian-based call centre to generate personal injury and PPI leads for law firms has lost her bid to overturn the cancellation of her authorisation to provide claims management services.

More than half of the reports received by the SRA about the use of non-disclosure agreements in discrimination or harassment cases relate to claims made within law firms, it has emerged.

A solicitor with a previous conviction for drink-driving has been fined £8,000 after she was caught again, having failed to learn from her first offence, a disciplinary tribunal decided.

Two personal injury lawyers who tried to blame “unhelpful” ethics guidance from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for paying banned referral fees have been fined by a tribunal.

A junior solicitor who was convicted after sending a woman he briefly dated a series of abusive Facebook messages has had his sentence reduced but now faces regulatory action too.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers is proposing to join the Solicitors Regulation Authority in allowing the lawyers it regulates to use third-party managed accounts.

A solicitor has been suspended from practice after being convicted of allowing a small cannabis farm to grow in her house. A tribunal said maintaining the profession’s reputation required it.

A paralegal who stole £70,000 from people’s estates to splash out on designer clothes and handbags has been jailed for more than three years. She posed as beneficiaries of two wills.

A High Court judge has criticised the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for “lack of clarity of thought” as it replaced a strike-off with a two-year suspension.