Regulation

A female victim of sexual assault by a male barrister has spoken about how she was let down by her chambers, the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service.

Two solicitors have been fined for allowing their firm to take on work in areas where they had no experience and accepting client money when it did not have a client account.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is planning a pilot with other legal regulators on how to extend the use of unbundling as evidence showed it could save consumers up to 50% in fees, it has emerged.

Correspondence between solicitors involving “an element of deception” as to its real purpose can be covered by litigation privilege, the High Court has ruled.

The group Black Women in Law has called on fellow lawyers to be an “example of anti-racism in action” by challenging racism whenever they see it and wherever they hear it.

A family law barrister has been suspended from the innovative business she founded after being accused of making racist comments about the new Royal baby.

A digital register of regulated and unregulated legal services providers would be “the simplest solution” to improve consumer navigation of the market, the Legal Services Board has said.

The Legal Services Board is set to recommend an accreditation scheme for review and comparison websites as take-up among both law firms and consumers continues to rise.

New forms of intervention introduced in other countries to ensure the ongoing competence of lawyers – such as annual assessments and greater self-reflection – will influence reform in England and Wales.

Nearly 60% of applicants for the legal practice course refused to disclose their ethnicity last year – an extraordinary rise from the 2.3% who refused in 2019.