Compliance & Regulation

Solicitors responding to ‘one-off’ requests for information or advice from former or potential clients need to identify the limits of their engagement to avoid negligence claims, the Court of Appeal has warned.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has begun formal talks with the Solicitors Regulation Authority about taking over the regulation of its members.

The SDT has decided not to sanction a solicitor who threatened his former law firm with blowing the whistle on alleged legal aid contract breaches if it did not withdraw a complaint about him.

The attainment gap between ethnic minority and White students in the centrally assessed modules of the Bar professional training course had a higher impact on pass rates.

Regulatory initiatives to encourage consumers to shop around, such as making it easier for them to compare prices, are starting to pay off, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

A partner who billed for her time ‘considering’ matters but did not detail in attendance notes what she had actually done has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

“Radical thinking” is needed by the Bar Standards Board to get a grip on the growing backlog of investigations and poor performance on timeliness, board members have said.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has warned firms about the importance of proper file storage and data retention, after a licensed conveyancer abandoned 15,000 archived files.

The Bar Council and Law Society have attacked proposed Legal Services Board changes to way it assesses frontline regulators’ performance.

A solicitor convicted in Germany of seven counts of aiding and abetting tax evasion as part of a VAT carousel fraud has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Bar Standards Board is to gather evidence from solicitors on how they choose a barrister, including whether they offer their clients a choice – or even take account of a client’s views.

A head of commercial property and deputy district judge has been struck off for taking over £288,000 from two Essex law firms and their clients over a period of 16 years.

A solicitor who used money from a client’s estate to buy a house he then lived in has been struck off, with the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal saying the public would be “horrified” by his actions.

CILEX has commissioned Chris Kenny, the original chief executive of the Legal Services Board, to review whether it should continue delegating its regulatory responsibilities to CILEx Regulation.

The Bar Standards Board can go ahead with its plan to scrap the Bar course aptitude test, the Legal Services Board has decided – even though it may have led to a fall in course failure rates.