Solicitors

A law firm which did the conveyancing work on two failed off-plan housing developments was not operating an unregulated collective investment scheme, the High Court has ruled.

The Legal Services Board has introduced new rules to ensure legal regulators explain more clearly how they spend the money they raise through the compulsory levies on lawyers.

A solicitor who lied to her client about the progress of her case and then to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about it, and later to professional indemnity insurers, has been struck off.

Three regulators are joining forces to pilot ways for law firms to engage better with comparison websites and online review platforms, starting with conveyancing and employment work.

A solicitor who ‘witnessed’ the signatures of a client’s father that were already on property documents, without checking their authenticity, has been fined £20,000.

The High Court has upheld a decision to refuse a North London law firm’s application to restrain the solicitor who transferred his business over to it from presenting a winding-up petition.

The Supreme Court is to consider whether costs should only be awarded against regulators in unsuccessful cases where there is good reason to make an order, it announced today.

A “seriously inept” solicitor who transferred money to another law firm’s client account, in breach of a court order that his firm should hold it, has been fined £8,000.

A chartered legal executive who made an “implied threat” of criminal proceedings in a bid to stop a witness testifying against her client has been banned from working for solicitors’ firms.

Three partners have been fined for charging conveyancing clients for the firm’s indemnity insurance, as well as “variable sums” for filling out a simple standard form.