Compliance & Regulation

Two managers of a collapsed personal injury law firm have each been fined £18,000 for failing to declare commissions earned by a connected business which provided clients with ATE insurance.

Details of the disciplinary case the Solicitors Regulation Authority will make against Sophie Khan – who was jailed for contempt after failing to give it her firm’s papers – were published yesterday.

A solicitor specialising in actions against the police who failed to disclose the existence of a warrant to counsel and the court has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The High Court has rejected an appeal from a barrister disbarred after a council tax conviction and submission of dishonest evidence to a Crown Court.

The decision by the Financial Conduct Authority to exclude in-house lawyers from its senior managers and certification regime has damaged the authority they have in their organisations.

The Legal Services Board has said it expects to see “a sense of pace and urgency” from regulators in improving the flow of information to consumers to help them choose a lawyer.

The Solicitors Indemnity Fund – which was first due to close in 2017 – has been given another stay of execution and will now go on to September 2023, a year later than the SRA had planned.

A veteran solicitor whose carelessness and ignorance of the accounts rules led to multiple breaches has been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has ended proceedings against the junior solicitor initially struck off after she left confidential documents on a train.

The behaviour of the barrister who called her more junior opponent a liar before an employment tribunal and mimicked her voice verged on bullying, a disciplinary panel has decided.

The Law Society is planning to increase the cost of practising to boost its income by £8.4m over the next three years as it bids to make itself “indispensable” to members.

Peers have asked the Solicitors Regulation Authority whether it plans to reopen complaints about law firms involved in strategic lawsuits against public participation.

The SRA Compensation Fund paid out £27m to the victims of solicitors’ dishonesty in its last financial year, an increase of 162% on the previous 12 months.

A solicitor who twice tried to settle a client’s complaints on condition that they not report his firm to any regulatory body has been rebuked by the SRA, one of several sanctions it has handed out.

The SRA has set out plans to reverse the increase in the time it takes to investigate complaints, after the number of cases open for more than 12 months topped 1,000 last year.