Regulation

There has been a surprise 14% increase in the number of students enrolling on the Bar professional training course, it has emerged. It comes despite concern among Bar leaders that the burden of student debt is having a negative impact on the junior Bar.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has expressed surprise that City giant Clifford Chance was not charged with a lack of integrity or acting recklessly in its conduct of the Excalibur case, it has emerged. However, despite being “very troubled” by the limited nature of the allegations of misconduct, the tribunal concluded that it could not go behind the SRA’s charge sheet.

The Land Registry is to publish how many incomplete applications it receives from the top 500 conveyancing firms as part of its commitment to opening up its data. It sends out 5,000 requisitions every day to conveyancers for further information or action before their applications can be completed.

A solicitor has been struck off for bringing judicial review claims on behalf of immigration clients that he knew were hopeless but would thwart or delay their removal from the UK and potentially even lead to their release from detention.

The process of publishing up-front price information should be achieved through “prescriptive templates” across the legal profession, the Legal Ombudsman has suggested. It said publication needed to be more than simply displaying likely prices, stressing the importance of lawyers providing context to their quotes.

A boutique City litigation practice has successfully settled claims by a group of 48 investors against US law firm Locke Lord, it has emerged. Last month, the firm was fined a record £500,000 after a former partner was found to have run dubious high-yield investment schemes.

The current framework of legal regulation is “inconsistent”, the Ministry of Justice accepted today, but said it could not commit to the formal review sought by the Competition and Markets Authority and others. It also said it would not take forward the plan to completely separate legal regulators from representative bodies.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has again reached a highly unusual majority decision in the Leigh Day case, this time on the costs of the case. Two members of the tribunal decided that there should be no order for costs, but the third member argued that Leigh Day should be awarded 40% of its costs of the proceedings.

There is still some bad practice among personal injury firms – particularly around their relationships with work introducers and other third parties – but overall it is a positive picture of good practice and compliance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s has found. It also suggested that the low level of reported fraud was because defendant firms chose to opt for a discontinuance rather than press the issue.

Legal regulation is “more than ripe for total overhaul”, a former chair of the Bar Standards Board has told the House of Lords. Speaking in a debate on better regulation, Baroness Deech argued that by the time the Legal Services Act 2007 came into force, it was all already out of date because of the financial crash.