Solicitors

The government has gone ahead with its promise to ban personal injury lawyers from offering inducements, such as cash or iPads, to potential claimants by inserting a new clause into the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

The number of larger professional indemnity claims is increasing, undermining the case for a cut in the minimum cover for law firms from £2m to £500,000, an industry expert has argued in a letter to the Legal Services Board.

The Legal Services Board has attacked the Solicitors Regulation Authority for having “over-engineered” its approach to regulating multi-disciplinary alternative business structures and to approving non-lawyer owners.

Views on transparency and clarity “have changed” since Lloyds Bank first started sending letters to debtors under the name of a solicitors’ firm, its group chief executive has told MPs.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has reminded the Legal Services Board (LSB) of its decision to allow accountancy firms wanting to carry out legal work to have minimum indemnity insurance cover of £500,000, in a bid to head off concerns about its move to reduce the level for solicitors.

A third of suspicious activity reports submitted by solicitors seeking consent to continue working on a matter do not contain enough information on which to make a decision, the UK Financial Intelligence Unit has found.

A solicitor involved in boiler-room scams has been suspended from practising for 18 months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. He had already been found guilty by the then Financial Services Authority to have recklessly signed off the approval of 50 UK investment advertisements.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has removed reference to the Law Society’s controversial practice note on Sharia succession rules from its recent guidance on will drafting, it has emerged.

The row over companies sending letters to customers in debt that falsely appear to be from independent solicitors’ firms, rather than their in-house lawyers, is set to rumble on after the Treasury select committee demanded information from the main high street banks about their activities.

The High Court has dismissed an appeal against a disciplinary sanction imposed on a solicitor who refused to pay a wasted costs order, and then went bankrupt as “the only way in which he could secure evidence to support his assertions of dishonesty” against a law firm and its barrister.

The Bar Council has announced that it will shortly be issuing guidance on the new consumer contract regulations – more than a month after they came into force and two months after the Law Society issued its guidance.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned in-house solicitors that “attempts to mislead” debtors that external firms are taking steps against them could result in disciplinary action.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has decided to press ahead with plans that would allow European law firms that do not conduct reserved work to set up in England and Wales outside of the regulatory regime.

The Association of British Insurers has joined the chorus of criticism of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s decision to cut the minimum level of professional indemnity insurance to £500,000. SRA consultees were opposed by nearly 3:1, it has also emerged.

A solicitor best known for his involvement in the failed Axiom Legal Financing Fund, which caused some law firms major financial problems, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.