Compliance & Regulation

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has refused to allow an immigration solicitor to be restored to the roll 21 years after he was struck off for accounts rule breaches.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has agreed to a request from the Solicitors Indemnity Fund to underwrite its potential liabilities in continuing to operate by providing a £6m undertaking.

The legal regulators have been given six months to deliver action plans to the Legal Services Board on how they are going to reform their regimes to ensure lawyers’ ongoing competence.

The Legal Services Board has, after “very extensive debate”, backed a cut in the time limit for complaining to the Legal Ombudsman from six years to only one year.

A fee-earner at Slater & Gordon who falsely claimed he had missed litigation deadlines because of scanning errors and not being in the office due to the pandemic has been banned from working in law firms.

A solicitor who told a trainee to draft an “incorrect and misleading” defence to an unpaid fees claim from a barrister – which ignored his firm’s liability for the money – has been fined £7,500.

Lawyers at incorporated law firms should not give personal undertakings even though the corporate undertakings are not enforceable, the Law Society has said.

A solicitor who made false and misleading statements on applications for professional indemnity insurance has been struck off and ordered to pay costs of over £124,000.

CILEx Regulation could take legal action following the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives’ announcement that it is talking to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about becoming its regulator.

The Legal Ombudsman is on course to meet its goal of halving the backlog of cases waiting for investigation by March 2023, with its output increasing significantly, the chief ombudsman has said.

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.