Compliance & Regulation

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.

The availability of professional indemnity insurance and the capability of clients are the main concerns for law firms looking at unbundled services, research has indicated.

Views on whether Scotland should introduce a single legal regulator remain polarised, with consumers backing “radical changes”, while lawyers argue that it would undermine their independence.

Some lawyers are wrongly advising clients to pay ransoms when they fall victim to cyber-attacks, the National Cyber Security Centre and Information Commissioner’s Office have warned.

Family lawyers group Resolution is to start promoting the ‘one lawyer, two clients’ model for divorce that both law firms and unregulated providers are starting to offer.