Other lawyers

A “fundamental review” of claims management companies – along with a cap on the fees that they can charge consumers – was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in today’s Summer Budget.

A man who falsely claimed to be a solicitor has been jailed for 15 months after being guilty of providing unregulated immigration advice and services, while another who was actually a bus driver has been handed a suspended sentence.

Will writers have become the first practitioners to sign up to a new register of paralegals, which is set to be launched next month as part of an effort to set standards for the non-authorised legal professionals.

Former Law Society chief executive Dame Janet Paraskeva has been named as the new chair of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. Dame Janet, a non-lawyer, has been appointed for an initial four-year term.

There has been a massive increase in the number of lawyers disciplined by their professional bodies for breaking the rules on money laundering, a Treasury report has found.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has strongly attacked plans by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to cut the size of grants from its compensation fund from £1m to £500,000 – a quarter of the amount clients of solicitors can claim.

The government has reduced the scope of regulation for law firms involved in consumer credit work, such as debt collection. It has also increased the ability of firms to offer payment by instalments.

Many lawyers, particularly solicitors and barristers, complain about their practising certificate (PC) fees, but there are high levels of ignorance about what they are paying for, a major cost of regulation survey has found.

The House of Lords has given the Council for Licensed Conveyancers the power to issue standalone licences for people to conduct reserved probate work without them having to become licensed conveyancers first.

Unnecessary restrictions on in-house lawyers could “impose costs and red tape, frustrate innovation and adversely affect access to justice”, the Legal Services Board has argued.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has criticised “quasi-regulatory” conveyancing schemes launched by the Law Society which could be seen as “duplicating” the CLC’s work.

The profession’s regulators are not doing enough to understand the consumers of lawyers’ services, the Legal Services Board has warned. But it said there has been progress since the first assessment in 2012/13.

Regulators need to do more with the diversity data they now collect in order to drive improvements in recruitment and particularly progression and retention within the profession, the Legal Services Board will shortly say.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has moved closer towards its goal of regulating specialist probate lawyers who do not have to be conveyancers.

Quinton Quayle, a former British ambassador to Thailand, has been appointed chair of ILEX Professional Standards. Meanwhile, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has announced that Anna Bradley is stepping down as chair after five years.