Regulation

Almost half the staff at SME law firms say their firms have been attacked by fraudsters within the past 12 months, a survey has found. At the same time, the research into how firms are responding to risk management and compliance found evidence more generally that firms are “turning regulation into a business driver”.

Personal injury lawyers, conveyancers and other solicitors who arrange or advise on insurance policies face new rules under a European directive coming into force next February, dealing with issues such as conflicts of interest and commissions.

There needs to be a “more diverse and innovative legal services market” in England and Wales that attracts new providers and offers new opportunities “for the current and future legal profession”, the Lord Chancellor has said. David Lidington also hinted that further regulatory reform was still on the agenda.

A family law solicitor who held out his unregulated company as being an authorised law firm has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is the second such case in a matter of weeks and it has again been resolved by way of a regulatory settlement agreement.

A ban on estate agents charging solicitors referral fees along with loosening the restriction on conveyancers acting for both seller and buyer were suggested by the government yesterday as possible reforms to improve the home-buying process. It also said it wanted to look at how competition in the conveyancing sector could be improved.

The Claims Management Regulator has stepped up its focus on businesses operating without authorisation, particularly those in the holiday sickness market, after receiving more than 200 complaints in just three months. It prosecuted one company earlier this month, resulting in a £40,000 fine.

A sole practitioner who was struck off six years ago has won the right to sue for loans he made before his East London firm was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A deputy High Court judge ruled that eight out of 19 loans at issue did not vest in the Law Society (acting through the SRA) on the date of the intervention.

A barrister currently serving a suspension for conducting litigation without authorisation has now received a hefty fine for failing to attend an Upper Tribunal hearing without good reason. He was fined £5,000 by a Bar disciplinary tribunal – a large sum by its standards, although a tenth of the maximum it can fine – for failing to act in the best interests of his client.

A barrister whose charity, regulated as a law firm by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), was dissolved at the end of last year due to funding problems, has set up both a conventional BSB firm and a pioneering university law project to help immigration detainees.

A solicitor has been struck off for engaging in “a systematic course of conduct designed to undermine the immigration system”. His actions amounted to a “persistent” abuse of court process by issuing meritless judicial reviews to get his clients’ removal from the UK delayed, a tribunal ruled, saying its decision should act as a deterrent to others.