Regulation

The Legal Services Consumer Panel and the Legal Ombudsman are the latest organisations to come out against the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposal that practising solicitors be allowed to handle unreserved legal work for the public from unregulated firms.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has slapped down the Solicitors Regulation Authority for its conduct in a disciplinary case involving alleged money laundering, describing it as having “verged on the shambolic” and dismissing five out of the seven charges laid.

Criminal defence work is still beset by the “corrupt practices” of a minority of solicitors, as well as law firms sending incompetent in-house advocates to court – instead of instructing counsel – because of the financial benefits, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association has claimed.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed that it is investigating law firms involved in “dubious” high-yield investment schemes – and promised to close down those practice involved in them “urgently”. It said these schemes were costing consumers “many millions” of pounds,

The Law Society has raised its opposition to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) plan to allow practising solicitors to operate from unregulated law firms to an unprecedented level, issuing a report that said there would be little or no economic benefit from the move.

A court has arranged for a woman whose child suffered “shocking” injuries at home to be represented by a new law firm in family law proceedings after her previous solicitor was found to have a conflict of interest on both professional and personal grounds.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor after she was convicted on four counts of providing immigration advice or immigration services while suspended from practice. The judge at Luton Magistrates’ Court had described “a trail of destruction towards vulnerable people she left in her wake”.

An associate who acted for clients in his own time because they could not afford the fees of the firm he worked at has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. He charged the clients lower fees but was not authorised or insured to act.

A former sole practitioner who “completely failed to carry out money laundering checks or prevent his client bank accounts from being misused”, and as a result saw hundreds of thousands of pounds pass through his firm, has been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

Fears that the rewritten SRA Handbook might not continue the ban on law firms cold-calling potential personal injury clients have been allayed by the regulator. Meanwhile, the Law Society has released an opinion poll showing public opposition to the SRA’s plan to allow solicitors to practise from unregulated businesses.