Regulation

A barrister who claims to be a “master strategist and tactician” was reprimanded last week for making “offensive” comments about a child abuse victim while her mother sat in court. He said the 16-year-old “was not a young and innocent girl” as he represented her attacker in the Court of Appeal.

A solicitor who “failed to distinguish between the personal and professional” when doing business with a family he knew, meaning that he overlooked signs of possible money laundering, has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. It said his own description of his work as sloppy was “an understatement”.

A new brand selling direct access barristers to the general public for consumer law matters has gone live, Legal Futures can reveal. Meanwhile, the first, basic iteration of Billy Bot, the ‘robot junior clerk’ being created by Clerksroom, has gone live.

A solicitor has been suspended indefinitely after breaching conduct rules by preferring his bank as a creditor over Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, leaving the Exchequer hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket as a result. John Barrie Wilson had already been also disqualified as a director because of the shortfall.

The High Court has overturned a decision by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to clear a solicitor who borrowed money from the controversial Axiom Legal Financing Fund of charges of misconduct – five months after another ruling involving two solicitors who took an Axiom loan was also reversed.

A company behind 100m nuisance calls has been fined a record £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office after more than 1,000 people complained about automated calls. The calls, made over an 18-month period, related to a wide range of subjects but mainly road traffic accident claims and PPI compensation.

A barrister who specialises in advising technology companies has launched a Bar Standards Board entity to house her employment practice, while the legal group she co-founded is poised to release a product geared to helping clients navigate European data legislation.

The Crown Prosecution Service has taken over prosecution of a major legal aid fraud by a law firm after the Court of Appeal criticised the Legal Aid Agency for trying to run the case through the fraud department of a local authority instead. It expressed surprise that both the agency and Thurrock council had tried this course of action.

A commercial barrister has been suspended from practice for failing to comply with an order of the Legal Ombudsman and requests from his own regulator, only two years after a series of similar findings as well as a suspension for handling client money when he should not have done.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor for practising while bankrupt and dishonestly misleading the police that he worked for a firm when attending clients at police stations. He was also found to have breached conduct rules by failing to repay £8,250 he borrowed from a “vulnerable” elderly man he represented.