Solicitors

Public Interest Lawyers confirmed yesterday that the Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided to refer it to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over the Al-Sweady inquiry. It followed the SRA’s announcement in the morning that it had referred an unnamed firm to the tribunal, having earlier this year named Leigh Day as the first.

The introduction of entity regulation has had the unintended effect of “insourcing” professional obligations to specialist compliance staff, leaving knowledge among City lawyers of the SRA Handbook “very poor”, a leading legal academic has found as part of a major government-funded project.

A former senior partner who charged clients for work that had not been done has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal described the harm caused by David Michael Merrick, who had been a partner at Exeter firm Crosse & Crosse, as being “of the utmost seriousness”.

A solicitor whose lack of supervision contributed to a decision that a trainee’s two years of work did not count towards her qualification has been rebuked and fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is the maximum penalty that the regulator can levy short of a referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Conveyancers may need to be placed under extra duties of care so as to reduce the risk of fraudulent changes being made to the Land Register, the Law Commission has suggested. A major review of the Land Registration Act 2002 also put forward ways the law could encourage the development of electronic conveyancing.

A family lawyer who failed to record cash payments from clients has agreed to a £2,000 fine by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, while in another regulatory settlement agreement, a former head of private client at a West Midlands law firm agreed to remove herself from the roll following poor file management.

The Land Registry can sue a former law firm for negligent misrepresentation in not checking whether a mortgage discharge form was genuine, the High Court has decided. Master Matthews admitted there was no fiduciary relationship between law firm and Land Registry.

The Legal Director, a legal consultancy which provides in-house lawyers to businesses on a contract basis, has become the first firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to use the Bar Council’s third-party escrow account, BARCO.

Paul Philip, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has announced a rethink on plans to abolish the minimum period of workplace training required by all future solicitors. Meanwhile, the regulator also yesterday launched ‘Law Firm Search’, a new searchable, online database of the law firms it regulates.

NAHL Group plc – the AIM-listed business that owns National Accident Helpline – has announced strong results for 2015, but warned that impending government reforms to personal injury (PI) claims are likely to hit profits in the current financial year. Meanwhile, the SRA has issued a warning notice about PI fraud.