Compliance & Regulation

Law firm managers, but not junior staff, are set to have a regulatory obligation to challenge colleagues who treat others unfairly or without respect, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

The Legal Ombudsman is seeking an “inflationary” 9.6% increase in its budget for 2023-24 to £16.8m as it aims to “drastically reduce” the complaints backlog.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will make full use of the proposed new power to issue unlimited fines against solicitors and firms caught up in economic crime, its chief executive has warned.

There is “much” in how the Solicitors Regulation Authority will implement changes to its fines regime which “should be of grave concern to the profession”, Birmingham Law Society has warned.

A partner at listed law firm Knights convicted of assault by beating and separately drink driving has been fined £1,700 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A sister and brother struck off as solicitors for their role in dubious investment schemes have failed in their appeal to the High Court.

A significant number of chambers do not know whether their barristers have declared that they are subject to the money laundering regulations, the Bar Standards Board has warned.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority made 20 suspicious activity reports to the National Crime Agency in the past year, relating to solicitors handling £149m of potentially criminal funds.

The complaints partner at a West Midlands law firm who “frustrated the Legal Ombudsman in carrying out its function” by failing to respond to requests, has been fined £4,000.

A law firm that was non-compliant with the anti-money laundering rules for three years has been fined for showing “a disregard for statutory and regulatory obligations”.

The High Court has denied rights of audience to a disbarred barrister jailed for a bomb hoax at the London Olympics, which would have allowed him to represent a prisoner in habeas corpus proceedings.

The Bar Standards Board needs to highlight the link between online misogyny and female barristers who speak out on issues affecting women in the law, a campaigning group has argued.

An independent review by a leading public law silk into possible miscarriages of justice caused by the Post Office computer system “was used to, and in some ways contributed to, a cover-up”.

A criminal defence solicitor who said he certified two lasting powers of attorney “as a favour” for an elderly client has been fined £6,000 for failing to make the necessary checks.

A solicitor has admitted manifest incompetence in failing to advise a 92-year-old client to refuse a £60,000 engagement ring and £35,000 car in part-payment of the property he was selling.