Regulation
Solicitor who forged client’s signature on witness statement struck off
A solicitor who forged his client’s signature on a witness statement has been struck off, even though the client himself expressed surprise that disciplinary action had been taken. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said “it was regrettable that a long and previously unblemished career should end in this way”.
Row over entry to the profession after Law Society accuses SRA of pre-emptive decision on new assessment
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued a strong denial that it has already made up its mind over how it will assess the competence of would-be solicitors, after the Law Society suggested that it had.
SDT throws out allegations of forgery against fee-earner
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has thrown out forgery charges against a non-qualified fee-earner, deciding he had no case to answer and that the Solicitors Regulation Authority should pay costs of £5,000 as a reminder to it to keep cases under review as they progressed.
City lawyers warn PII reforms “risk damaging solicitor brand”
City solicitors have outlined their deep scepticism about plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to reform professional indemnity insurance rules, warning that “the solicitor brand should not be placed at risk” without very good reason.
BSB jumps out of cab-rank rule frying pan and into fire of LSB probe
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has been discharged from an undertaking it gave nearly two years ago to deal with concerns over the way it dealt with changes to the cab-rank rule. But in doing so, the Legal Services Board said it had continuing misgivings that have “directed our attention towards the BSB’s approach to regulation more broadly”.
Consumers and lawyers seeing benefits of unbundling legal services, major research finds
Consumers using ‘unbundled’ legal services generally report a positive experience and it has the potential to widen access to justice, groundbreaking exploratory research has found. However, it made clear that other solutions were also needed to address the legal needs of “more vulnerable consumers” unable to unbundle.
LSB research: Firms see little value in what they spend on regulation
Regulation accounts for between 15% and 23% of the costs of law firms, money they would generally not bother spending if they were not required to, an indicative study by the Legal Services Board has found. However, the opposite was the case for lawyers practising as individuals.
Barrister loses appeal against disbarment for misconduct over illness claim
The Visitors of the Inns of Court have thrown out appeals by a barrister against three disciplinary tribunal rulings, including one which disbarred him for seeking an adjournment of his case on grounds of ill-health, although he was found conducting a trial just days later.
High Court backs decision not to strike off solicitor who lied to avoid speeding penalty
The High Court has rejected a Solicitors Regulation Authority bid to increase the sanction for a solicitor who committed perjury to avoid a speeding fine from a suspension to a striking-off. Mr Justice Dove found that it could not be said the two-year suspension was “clearly inappropriate”.
Legal Services Board approves relaxation of rules on accountants’ reports
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plans to relax the rules around accountants’ reports have been formally approved by the Legal Services Board, meaning that around 1,000 more law firms will not have to submit one in future
Blog
The cost of systemic failure and childbirth injuries
Recent reports show that the NHS has paid almost £3.5bn in medical claims around childbirth injuries over the past six years.
Mazur: when regulators make simple things complicated
What the last six months have shown is that supervision cannot be treated as a background compliance obligation quietly managed somewhere in a firm’s operational processes.
How unstoppable AI is reshaping UK legal practice
At a time when most technology innovation still flows from the US and China, UK lawtech is attracting growing international attention and capital.
