Solicitors

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided against testing the financial stability of thousands more law firms despite concerns about how widespread problems are in the profession, it announced yesterday.

Much of the red tape around the training of solicitors would be swept away if proposals before the Solicitors Regulation Authority are adopted, including abandoning a ceiling on the number of trainees firms are allowed to take on.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has launched “forensic investigations” into 10 law firms that may have breached the personal injury referral fee ban, in a move that will be seen as a warning to the profession. Meanwhile, 141 firms without indemnity insurance are heading for closure.

The Legal Services Board wants to impose lay chairs on the frontline regulators so that they will “do more of what [it] wants”, the Bar Council has claimed. The Bar Standards Board and Law Society have also come out strongly against the proposal.

It was third time unlucky for a solicitor whose striking-off had twice been overturned by the High Court, as Mr Justice Mostyn yesterday rejected his challenge to the latest decision to remove him from the roll.

A solicitor who attempted to pocket £133,000 in a tax fraud by changing conveyancing documents and lying to his clients was jailed yesterday. He pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating the public revenue and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has shelved its bid to increase the maximum fine it can impose on law firms from £2,000 to £250m and is instead looking for a more modest rise – although still possibly 50 times the current level.

Legal Services Board should be focusing on the way the chairs of the frontline regulators are appointed, not on ensuring they are non-lawyers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is contemplating whether to contact thousands more law firms about their financial position after this summer’s exercise involving 2,000 practices “confirmed our view that financial difficulty is a widespread current risk”.

Widespread data snooping by the US National Security Agency, as revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, could threaten the security of cloud computing for law firms acting in confidential merger negotiations, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority does not know the insurance position of at least 50 law firms, but there may be even more out there uninsured, it admitted yesterday. Those yet to inform the regulator that they do not yet have insurance face enforcement action, it warned.

The problems with the Co-operative Bank will not have an impact on the growth of Co-operative Legal Services, its director of policy said yesterday. The assertion came as the SRA published guidance highlighting the risks of ‘group contagion’ in the legal market.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has imposed a series of conditions on AA Law that aim to control the relationship between the law firm and the breakdown giant’s insurance and claims-handling operations.

The process of approving alternative business structures seems to be weighted against multi-disciplinary practices and business services firms, it has been claimed. The Legal Services Board also expressed concern over the impact on ABS licensing of senior departures from the SRA.

Thousands of solicitors have missed the deadline to apply for their practising certificates to be renewed, the Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed today. It comes as new figures show a record number of practising solicitors.