Regulation

The Bar Standards Board is to boost its use of social media to rebut future negative publicity, after a bruising encounter with conventional news media in the wake of the ongoing controversy over barristers’ disciplinary tribunals.

A proposed £50,000 cap on compensation claims against alternative business structures licensed by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board is too restrictive, it has been argued as the board prepares to become an ABS licensing authority.

A will-writer is planning to use his new alternative business structure (ABS) licence to expand into the conveyancing market, Legal Futures can report. Further, an IFA is planning a specialist multi-disciplinary ABS with a law firm focusing on the over-55s.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to review efforts to combat mortgage fraud, a move that will push back final approval of its draft conveyancing strategy to 2014 – more than two years later than first planned.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales needs to abide by the spirit of the legal services reforms if it is to regulate probate work, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has urged.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has brought in the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) to handle complaints against solicitor insolvency practitioners. It follows criticism by the Insolvency Service of the SRA.

All law firms judged to present a risk of financial instability are to be contacted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority by the end of this month, Legal Futures can reveal. However, it is urging firms facing financial difficulty to overcome their mistrust and contact them early.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to seek powers to levy automatic fines for breaches of its rules to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment caused by hundreds of law firms failing to nominate compliance officers on time.

It will be for law firms to work out if they are complying with the ban on referral fees in personal injury cases, with the law drafted in such a way to make some collective marketing schemes “vulnerable to being in breach”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

The introduction of a leniency scheme for those who reveal misconduct at law firms and alternative business structures will today be debated by the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Co-operation could result in no action taking against the potential witness over their own wrongdoing.