Compliance & Regulation

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was wrong to throw out a private prosecution brought by a former client against the current president of the Law Society, the High Court has ruled.

A solicitor has been fined £8,000 for failing to advise clients of the risks inherent in three off-plan development schemes which were not completed, putting nearly £30m at risk.

A solicitor who used disbursements meant for experts and counsel to keep his firm afloat – and lied to his regulator about the debts he was being chased for – has been struck off.

An assistant solicitor who had a panic attack after missing a hearing and tried to destroy evidence that she had been notified about it has avoided being struck off.

A young solicitor who amended an email to give a client a false impression of when it was sent has avoided being struck off for what a tribunal described as a “moment of madness”.

A solicitor failed to comply with court orders to produce files to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, a High Court master has ruled, despite her claim that she hand-delivered them.

Directors from two legal businesses which generated £2.5m in fees by providing unregulated immigration advice have been fined nearly £17,000 and ordered to pay over £28,000 in compensation.

A solicitor has been cleared by a tribunal of misleading the court but failed in his bid for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to pay him almost £100,000 in costs as a result.

A Merseyside law firm has been cleared of breaking Advertising Standards Authority rules with a radio advert that highlighted the fear of “a social worker at your door to take your child”.

The government has unexpectedly announced that DAC 6, an EU cross-border tax transparency rule with major implications for international law firms, will be rewritten in the wake of the Brexit trade deal.

A solicitor who took unfair advantage of his own daughter-in-law by not completing his purchase of her flat and not telling her, and then renting it out for his own benefit, has been struck off.

A tribunal has ordered the Solicitors Regulation Authority to pay a solicitor £22,500 in costs after ruling that many of the allegations made against him were not properly brought.

Two well-known law firms have accepted fines from the SRA – one for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility and the other for holding disbursements in its office account.

A solicitor struck off for making false statements to the Mueller inquiry into alleged Russian involvement in the election of US president Donald Trump has received a presidential pardon.

It is likely that criminals launder “hundreds of millions” of pounds with the inadvertent aid of conveyancers across the UK, the government has warned. London litigation firms are also being targeted.