Regulation

Only a third of law firms are telling clients who make a complaint that they can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman if they are not satisfied with the outcome, research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found. The report also revealed limited support among firms for the compulsory publication of first-tier complaints data.

The barrister who won the first stage of her battle with the Bar Standards Board at the Supreme Court last week said the impact of almost five years of litigation had been “completely devastating” for her law firm. She also suggested that the courts “have their own problem with discrimination”.

The decision of the Bar Standards Board to withdraw from the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates could be a “turning point” in the regulation of barristers, the in-coming chair of the Bar Council has said. Andrew Walker QC called for a “proper dialogue” between the Bar Council and the Bar’s regulators, both the Legal Services Board and BSB.

Graduates from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds are half as likely to obtain pupillages as their white peers, research for the Bar Standards Board has found. A second report found that the Bar was still viewed as “an elite, white, male-dominated profession with long-established traditions”.

A solicitor who stole more than £300,000 of his elderly and disabled client’s money using a secret bank account has been struck off. He was found have committed the “outrageous plundering” of his client’s assets in a particularly “deplorable” case of dishonest conduct.

One of the two paralegal bodies which developed the Professional Paralegal Register (PPR) to act as a voluntary regulator for the sector, has decided to pull out after only two years, it has emerged. The National Association of Licensed Paralegals withdrew this summer, citing “irreconcilable differences” over the values and purpose of the PPR.

Insurance giant Allianz has warned the legal profession that its effort to clamp down on fraud will not stop at policyholders, after its investigations led to a solicitor being struck off for falsifying signatures on witness statements.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has removed from the profession two people at opposite ends of their careers – an 80-year-old solicitor who held unpaid disbursements in his office account, and a trainee solicitor who used client money to try and hide her mistakes.

Forcing law firms to publish prices could “bias” clients in favour of choosing their solicitor on price rather than quality or consumer protection, the Law Society has warned. It came with research commissioned by the society that suggested that once consumers understood that some legal services providers were unregulated, they were strongly put off them.

The Supreme Court has given the green light to a barrister to bring a claim of racial discrimination against the Bar Standards Board, by overturning a decision that her case was brought out of time. Portia O’Connor, who is black, was the first barrister to become a partner in a legal disciplinary partnership.