Regulation

The boss of a claims management company specialising in holiday sickness has accused solicitors of failing to vet cases for cold calling and fraud and “living in a world of denial”. Richard Conroy, a food scientist and founder of sickholiday.com, told solicitors: “You can do a far better job of vetting the cases coming to you.”

The owner of a claims management company fined £175,000 for cold-calling consumers and described as demonstrating “the worst excesses of the industry”, has now been banned as a director for six years. The Information Commissioner’s Office received 5,535 complaints in the space of just four months.

A solicitor jailed for the attempted murder of his wife while suffering from severe depression has been handed an indefinite suspension by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal due to the “wholly exceptional” circumstances of his case. Normally such an offence would lead to a strike-off.

The Bar Standards Board issued an unprecedented public apology to a QC yesterday for the errors and delays it made in clearing him of misconduct. Welcoming the move, Khawar Qureshi QC outlined concerns about the potential for abuse of the BSB process to unfairly attack barristers.

London and Manchester firm Neumans – which was shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority following a referral by the Court of Appeal – has gone into administration. It comes just a few weeks after the firm lost its bid to overturn the intervention.

The first sign of action to implement governance reform has emerged from the Law Society, which is recruiting a non-executive chair for its new main board. The reforms process has largely been carried out behind closed doors for over a year, but some details have crept out in the job description for the new role, which will pay £42,800 a year for two days a week.

Enid Rowlands has been reappointed as chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s board for one more year as it begins recruiting three new members. Ms Rowlands, who became the regulator’s first lay chair in 2015, will now continue until December 2018. Her reappointment was confirmed by an independent panel.

The government yesterday rejected attempts by peers to ban cold-calling by claims management companies, and also bring medical reporting organisations and credit hire companies within the regulatory scope of the Financial Conduct Authority.

The row between Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Law Society over the former’s plan to allow solicitors to practise from unregulated firms has stepped up a notch, with the SRA saying “it is hardly surprising that those who are already operating in the legal market are against increasing competition”.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has given strong backing to the Bar Standards Board’s proposal to reduce the standard of proof in disciplinary proceedings from the criminal to the civil standard. “[It] will be fairer on consumers, and it may act as a positive incentive for barristers to deliver good services,” the panel said.