Solicitors

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.

There is a “small but material rate of non-compliance” by solicitors with their complaints-handling requirements – and some bad attitudes towards complaints – confidential research by the Solictors Regulation Authority has found.

Wariness among individuals of becoming compliance officers – especially because of the risk of personal liability – has led to some firms nominating persons who lack the most relevant expertise, research seen exclusively by Legal Futures has found.

The government has changed its mind over scrapping more than two dozen money laundering offences that can penalise lawyers for minor rule breaches, but has emphasised that minor failures should not lead to prosecution.

Since the introduction of the SRA Handbook, firms have been asking whether they should introduce or improve a file review system. Corinne Staves, a senior associate at Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, considers the issues.

The Law Society’s criminal litigation accreditation scheme is redundant, has no influence on clients and plans for reaccreditation are strongly opposed by the profession, the body representing criminal law solicitors has claimed.

Concerns over the standard of will-writing by solicitors are based on limited evidence and the Solicitors Regulation Authority should not have to prove its ability to regulate such work, the Law Society has claimed.

A final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been amended at the last minute to take into account objections raised by the board of the Bar Standards Board.

There are more positive messages from the judiciary that they will take part in the new Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, and they are relaxed about the prospect of assessments being used for appeals against conviction, it was claimed last week.