Compliance & Regulation

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has taken the unusual step of anonymising the identity of a solicitor appearing before it after a drink-driving conviction.

A barrister who made 10 meritless applications, including damages claims worth £4m against a council, and as a result was made subject to an extended civil restraint order, has been reprimanded.

The Bar Standards Board has warned that it cannot stop the growing interest in featuring barristers on online review and comparison websites, even if the profession wants it to.

A solicitor who followed a client’s instructions to backdate a loan agreement and then did not disclose it as part of divorce proceedings has been rebuked for her “error of judgment”.

The end appears nigh for Axiom Ince, with the law firm admitting that it has stopped taking new instructions and will “likely be unable to continue in its current format”.

A solicitor who lied to Keystone Law about drink-drive convictions as well as investigations into his conduct when he joined the listed law firm has been struck off.

A solicitor failed to spot a conflict of interest when a vulnerable client’s attorneys bought five properties using her money but gave themselves a 50% ownership stake in each.

The SRA must explore how its work “can be used to enhance and promote access to justice”, such as by ensuring there are enough social welfare lawyers, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.

A solicitor suspended for practising without insurance has blamed an admitted “administrative error” by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for triggering the events which led to it.

A law firm which failed to follow its internal processes and transferred the proceeds of a property sale to a third party has been fined for misconduct.

A solicitor who enclosed a cheque for £147,500 with his resignation letter, so he could leave a national law firm with a “clear conscience”, has been struck off.

An improved version of the Legal Choices ‘Can you trust your legal adviser?’ portal could be “the best way forward” for a single digital register of all regulated lawyers, the LSB has said.

More than a quarter (27%) of complaints made to the Legal Ombudsman are outside the new time limits introduced at the beginning of April, it has emerged.

A solicitor has been struck off after redacting witness statements to cover up actions he had taken, including agreeing that his client would pay costs, without her knowledge.

The diversity of the legal services sector means the one-size-fits-all approach to professional indemnity insurance adopted by its regulators “may not be the most appropriate”.