Regulation

There needs to be less talk and more action to tackle the “crisis” of female criminal law barristers leaving the profession, the head of the Criminal Bar Association has argued.

A judge effectively bullied a mother into agreeing to interim care orders for her children against her wishes, the Court of Appeal has found. The “oppressive behaviour” meant there was not a fair hearing.

The High Court has rejected a solicitor’s appeal against a decision to ban him from working as a sole practitioner, after a tribunal found he had been “sloppy, lazy and careless”.

An experienced personal injury paralegal who lied to a barrister and legal expenses insurer “on instruction from her supervising solicitor” has been prohibited from working for law firms without permission.

The chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has spoken out in defence of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over its decision to strike off bullied whistleblower Emily Scott.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to carry out randomised “web sweeps” of around 500 law firms over the next few months to check they are publishing fees for certain consumer and business transactions.

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.

Four QCs and 24 other barristers say their gender is no longer the same as that featured on their original birth certificates, a report by the Bar Standards Board has found.

A law firm sent a vulnerable client letters full of Latin and technical phrases, despite being repeatedly told the client had a learning difficulty and needed communications to be in plain English, according to the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Services Board has closed its investigation into the Law Society’s governance arrangements – which led to an unprecedented public censure last year – after a series of reforms.