Regulation

The Mail on Sunday has been forced to publish a ruling highlighting its regulator’s serious concerns about the way it reported the conduct of a QC in a money laundering case. The newspaper was also criticised for misreporting the status of a related Solicitors Regulation Authority investigation.

The turnover of personal injury claims management companies (CMCs) has continued to tumble over the past year, falling 41% in just two years to £182m, according to the Ministry of Justice, which also highlighted how CMCs that offer damages-based agreements are struggling to comply with the law.

The High Court has imposed a nine-month suspension on a senior solicitor after he successfully appealed his striking-off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Mrs Justice Carr said the misconduct was serious, but not at the highest level, and also criticised the SRA for the delay in bringing the case and some of the allegations it made.

A solicitor has been sanctioned over the potential conflict of interest of acting where he stood to financially benefit from the proceeds of the transaction he was dealing with while working at a leading London law firm. Separately, an IT worker and business development manager have been banned from the profession after criminal convictions.

A man who set up two fraudulent claims management companies and another who helped him stage car crashes have been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison between them. The City of London Police has thanked the solicitors targeted by the fraudulent referrals for their co-operation.

The number of barristers disbarred has more than doubled, the Bar Standards Board has said, with most of the cases relating to criminal convictions. The BSB warned also that the number of complaints involving use of social media by barristers was increasing.

A City law firm shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority last month after its conduct had been referred to the regulator by the Court of Appeal has lost its bid to overturn the intervention. Mr Justice Newey said the risks of withdrawing the intervention into Neumans outweighed those of continuing it.

A solicitor who misled the court over the ‘student’ status of a client has been suspended indefinitely by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal heard that the client told Mansoor Ali that he had been “paying money to agents” to get certificates from universities, with the aim of getting indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Lord Justice Jackson has today put forward his vision for extending fixed recoverable costs (FRC), but warned that it was not his job to protect the junior Bar or any other part of the profession in doing so. Having initially talked about introducing FRCs for all cases worth up to £250,000, Sir Rupert said today that he has not gone that far because of improvements made in costs management.

A conveyancing solicitor has been rebuked and fined £2,000 after he dealt entirely with the daughter of the owner of a property in whose sale he acted, only for it later to emerge the seller had a lasting power of attorney in place that named his son as his attorney.