Compliance & Regulation

Covid did not significantly reduce the number of dissatisfied clients contacting the Legal Ombudsman but it hit the organisation’s ability to deal with them, according to figures out today.

A partner and law firm failed to spot a restrictive covenant on a purchase and then did not tell its developer client, continuing instead to act for him when litigation over it ensued.

A law firm has been rebuked after a failure to perform proper due diligence on the identity of a client – for which it relied on a third party – led to a fraudulent property sale.

A public access barrister who engaged in “unnecessarily hostile and antagonistic correspondence” with opposing solicitors has been suspended for six months.

A law firm chief executive who lost his claim that he was fired for making protected disclosures has escaped a costs order even though a tribunal said it had no reasonable prospects of success.

There is near unanimity among the public that lawyers should have to demonstrate more actively than now that they remain competent throughout their careers, the Legal Services Board has found.

A family law practice started by two solicitors has divorced the Bar Standards Board as its regulator and taken up with the Solicitors Regulation Authority after difficulties beset the relationship.

The barrister suspended from the innovative family law business she founded after being accused of making racist comments about the latest Royal baby has returned to work.

A solicitor who falsified returns to HM Revenue & Customs so as to underpay stamp duty land tax and pocket the difference has been jailed for more than three years.

Minority ethnic barristers remain more likely than their White counterparts to be subject to complaints raised by the Bar Standards Board, with men more likely than women, new research has shown.

The alternative business structure owned by global insurance services firm Crawford & Company has been fined for failing to confirm that it had a compliant anti-money laundering risk assessment.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that correspondence between solicitors a judge found involved “an element of deception” as to its real purpose was covered by litigation privilege.

A solicitor who received a suspended jail sentence after being convicted of making indecent images of children and producing cannabis has been struck off.

Lawyers should have to take online tests every 10 years to prove that they remain competent in their specialist fields, the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel said yesterday.

A partner who defrauded his firm of £2.3m over seven years – some of which was done with the help of a client – has been jailed for four years and also struck off as a solicitor.