Regulation

There is broad support for an outcomes-focused approach to implementing the ban on referral fees in personal injury cases, according to early indications from the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s consultation on the issue.

Claims management companies saw a 33% increase in turnover to £774m last year, but standards are plummeting as they “fall over each other” to bring payment protection insurance mis-selling claims, their regulator has reported.

The economic climate is exacerbating the focus consumers put on cost when choosing solicitors, early findings from Solicitors Regulation Authority research have indicated. However, there were also good signs for high street firms in the pull they have with their local communities.

Ian Dodd of the Bar Consultancy Network responds to our article earlier this week on the apparent disappearance of the ProcureCo concept a little over two years after the Bar Council launched it with great fanfare.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has admitted defeat in its bid to introduce an online system for tens of thousands of solicitors who want to stay on the roll because it fears a repeat of last year’s PC renewal shambles.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has brought in an equality and race relations expert to look at whether there is any racial bias in the decisions it makes after research showed that BME solicitors continue to be disproportionately represented in its regulatory decisions.

Remember the ProcureCo? Most have forgotten this corporate bolt-on to chambers, little more than two years after it was launched. We asked the Bar Council what happened to its big idea.

Scrapping the ban on solicitors referring clients to tied financial advisers would “make them prey to every tied or multi-tied product salesperson in the land”, leading to massive claims on the compensation fund and negligence actions, the SRA has been warned.

Around 750 law firms have failed to meet the 31 July deadline for nominating their compliance officers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has reported. More than 93% of firms have completed or nearly completed the process.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board have been warned to improve the way they regulate immigration practitioners or risk enforcement action by the Legal Services Board – including the ultimate sanction of losing their ability to regulate the area at all.