Solicitors

A solicitor who “took advantage” of his position at the law centre where he worked by privately charging immigration and asylum clients ineligible for legal aid has been struck off. He charged clients a total of £8,000 on a private paying basis while working at the Gloucester Law Centre.

A solicitor who took £1m from the legal aid fund by fabricating cases and making hundreds of improper claims, and then abandoned his practice, has been struck off. On the first day of a two-day Legal Aid Agency visit, he said he had a problem with one of his children and had to leave – the investigating officer never saw him again.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s warning about using non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual harassment puts solicitors in a difficult position and may even discourage reporting, it has been claimed.

A solicitor who bombarded a work colleague with “deeply offensive” and racist messages has been fined £5,000 after a tribunal found that a reduction in the medication he was on led to the misconduct. It did not accept the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s argument that he had a duty to maintain his health and ensure the messages were not sent.

Six former leaders of defunct firm Cobbetts have been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for their actions as the firm was going under. However, the Solicitors Regulation Authority withdrew an allegation that they exhibited “manifest incompetence” in the way they ran the firm.

A High Court judge has issued a restraining order to stop a man in a long-running divorce case from contacting his former wife’s solicitor on her private email address. Mr Justice Mostyn said “it is completely unacceptable that this form of harassment should take place”.

The First-tier Tribunal has upheld a council’s refusal to hand over information on its handling of a review into its dealings with a law firm that caused an uproar by sending out a series of tweets appearing to gloat over defeating cases brought by parents of children with special educational needs.

Law firms must not use non-disclosure agreements to prevent the reporting of professional misconduct – including sexual harassment or misconduct towards other employees or clients – the Solicitors Regulation Authority warned today.

The Court of Appeal yesterday spelt out the higher standards to which solicitors are held in defining what “integrity” means for the purposes of disciplinary action. It said integrity “connotes adherence to the ethical standards of one’s own profession” and involved “more than mere honesty”.

National law firm Simpson Millar has accepted a rebuke and £2,000 fine from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for promoting stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes which cost HM Revenue & Customs over £4.5m. The sanction is the most the SRA can hand out without referring the firm to a disciplinary tribunal.