Regulation

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has launched an investigation into a law firm accused by the senior immigration judge of weakening the rule of law through its “cavalier and unprofessional” approach in acting for the Rochdale grooming gang.

The vast majority of family law firms are offering alternative ways to pay legal fees post-LASPO – such as unbundling and monthly payment plans – and more than eight out of 10 clients were able to find the money themselves rather than rely on friends and family, a survey has revealed.

A criminal defence solicitor who used his law firm’s accounts to lie about his income to HM Revenue & Customs and steal more than £60,000 in a tax fraud, has been jailed for 18 months. Meanwhile, two barristers have been disbarred after separate criminal convictions, one involving supplying cocaine.

Both the Legal Services Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority are putting too much emphasis on promoting competition at the expense of the other regulatory objectives they are meant to uphold, the Law Society has claimed. But the SRA has said its plan to allow practising solicitors to operate from unregulated businesses is “overdue”.

The head of a council’s child protection legal team has successfully removed all the conditions on his practising certificate imposed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the wake of a finding against him by a disciplinary tribunal.

Leading legal aid law firm Duncan Lewis has been sanctioned for breaching the rule that prohibits paying referral fees for legally aided clients. The rebuke and £2,000 fine is the most that the Solicitors Regulation Authority can do without referring the firm to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) has unveiled major governance reform that it said prepares the body for the government making legal regulators entirely independent. Crucially, it said the changes would ensure that CILEx continues to be viable as a professional body without receiving any income from practising fees.

Law firms must comply with data requests even if the purpose for seeking the documents is assisting in litigation, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Overturning the High Court, Lady Justice Arden held that a data request was not invalid if made for the “collateral purpose of assisting in litigation”.

The Lord Chief Justice has outlined his “strong opposition” to a bid to allow accountants to handle tax litigation and advocacy work – and in return come under fire from the body that would regulate them. Lord Thomas described the application by the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as “entirely premature”.

The solicitor convicted of transferring criminal property after being taken in by a charismatic conman posing as the Pope’s banker was naïve but not dishonest, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has said in explaining why it considered a £2,000 fine sufficient penalty for her misconduct.