Solicitors

A solicitor who was caught drink-driving three times in four weeks has been fined £8,000 – reduced to £2,000 due to his finances – by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Small businesses are less price sensitive than expected, but value price certainty, unpublished research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling seen as driving a coach and horses through the protection provided to corporate clients by legal professional privilege.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned law firms to be on the alert for fraudster infiltrators after incidents at two small practices led to potential losses of over £7m.

An experienced criminal law solicitor who broke the conditions on his practising certificate and then lied about it in a witness statement, has been struck off.

A partner who misled personal injury clients and his firm to show the department “in the best possible financial light” has been fined by the SDT.

An immigration lawyer who “wrongly claimed” £800,000 from the Legal Aid Agency has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Solicitors convicted of harassment and assault are among those to have received rebukes of late from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

There is “some uncertainty” as to whether non-lawyer partners of ABSs can be banned from working in the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has admitted.

A solicitor who sued the Lord Chancellor for £4.4m after his legal aid contract was taken away has been fined £4,000 by a disciplinary tribunal.