Regulation

The Bar Standards Board has received the green light to license alternative business structures. The approval from the Legal Services Board needs to be confirmed by the Ministry of Justice. The BSB’s initial focus will be on “low-risk, advocacy focused ABSs”.

This is a “considerable failure” of the legal services market to meet the needs of small businesses, a major lobbying group has told the Competition and Markets Authority. The Federation of Small Business said the barriers small businesses face in resolving legal problems were “numerous”.

A family lawyer who failed to record cash payments from clients has agreed to a £2,000 fine by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, while in another regulatory settlement agreement, a former head of private client at a West Midlands law firm agreed to remove herself from the roll following poor file management.

The Land Registry can sue a former law firm for negligent misrepresentation in not checking whether a mortgage discharge form was genuine, the High Court has decided. Master Matthews admitted there was no fiduciary relationship between law firm and Land Registry.

The Legal Director, a legal consultancy which provides in-house lawyers to businesses on a contract basis, has become the first firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to use the Bar Council’s third-party escrow account, BARCO.

Paul Philip, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has announced a rethink on plans to abolish the minimum period of workplace training required by all future solicitors. Meanwhile, the regulator also yesterday launched ‘Law Firm Search’, a new searchable, online database of the law firms it regulates.

NAHL Group plc – the AIM-listed business that owns National Accident Helpline – has announced strong results for 2015, but warned that impending government reforms to personal injury (PI) claims are likely to hit profits in the current financial year. Meanwhile, the SRA has issued a warning notice about PI fraud.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority after quashing restrictions and disciplinary sanctions the regulator had imposed on an immigration caseworker. The ruling is one of the few successful challenges to the SRA’s disciplinary decision-making.

Two directors of collapsed Devon law firm Recompense, Carolyn Hales and Irene Webb, have admitted allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility following agreements with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Matthew Roddan, a third director of the firm, is on his way to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Plans by the Bar Standards Board to introduce a more flexible, outcomes-focused CPD scheme have met with widespread opposition from barristers. Only two of the proposals in its latest consultation received a positive response from individual barristers, while the Chancery Bar Association and Inns of Court expressed concerns