Regulation

The High Court has rejected one of the Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) first appeals against a disciplinary sanction, sharply criticising the way in which it was pursued. The court found that the BSB had “fallen far short” of showing that no reasonable tribunal could have decided to just reprimand high-profile barrister Lincoln Crawford.

A non-lawyer working at leading Welsh firm Hugh James who forged a document in the name of an assistant solicitor has been banned from working in the profession. Meanwhile, a senior partner at a large City law firm has accepted a rebuke after being convicted of drink driving.

City giant Clifford Chance and partner Alexandros Panayides have agreed to pay fines of £50,000 each for conducting the infamous Excalibur case under an unlawful confidential fee agreement. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has approved an ‘agreed outcome’ that means a full hearing will not be held.

The Legal Services Board has rejected a call from its consumer panel to consider a centralised regime of financial protection for clients to replace what the panel called the “fragmented” nature of insurance and compensation arrangements across the different legal regulators.

A claims management company has failed to overturn a £50,000 fine imposed by the Claims Management Regulator last summer for breaching the rules relating to third-party referrals, misleading information and keeping proper records.

The Bar Standards Board effectively killed the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) today – six years after it was meant to come into force – by saying it was pulling out to go in a different direction to assure the quality of criminal advocates. QASA was originally meant to start in December 2011.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has criticised both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and two former directors of a Preston law firm for their “careless and disrespectful approach” in applying for approval of an ‘agreed outcome’ only a day before their hearing. The pair were accused of multiple accounts rules breaches and also allowing non-solicitors to control the firm.

The lack of young barristers is now so acute that it could spell the end of a “sustainable, separate profession”, the incoming chairman of the Bar has warned. Andrew Walker QC said: “To put it bluntly, we are recruiting and retaining ever fewer new tenants, and have been for over a decade, and the Bar is steadily growing older.”

The head of a Bradford law firm has been struck off after being convicted of conspiracy to defraud the Legal Aid Agency and also failing to supervise an unpaid junior member of staff who is suspected of producing fraudulent decree absolutes – and whose surname nobody at the firm can remember.

The government has emphasised its intention to introduce a ban on cold-calling by adding it to the long title of the parliamentary bill that will bring the ban about. The news comes as the bill has been amended to cap at 20% the fees CMCs and lawyers can charge consumers for claims management services in relation to PPI claims.