Solicitors

The Legal Services Board is weighing up whether to launch a formal investigation into the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority is handling alternative business structure applications, Legal Futures can reveal.

There has been a 25% fall in the number of law firms closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the past year, new figures have revealed. But despite the number of solicitors before the tribunal also falling, there was a 55% increase in the number of strike-offs.

There is “sufficient consistency of evidence and concern” about the standard of criminal advocacy to warrant the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Legal Services Board concluded today.

Charles Plant, chairman of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has been re-appointed for a further year, it was announced yesterday. His term of office will now expire on 31 December 2014, when he will have led the board for five years.

The requirement on law firms to report non-material breaches to the Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to be ditched in time for this year’s annual information submission. The board of the SRA will tomorrow be asked to approve changes to the SRA Handbook.

There may be circumstances in which the eight-day period solicitors have to challenge interventions into their practices should be extended, the Court of Appeal has suggested.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s reluctance to give detailed guidance to law firms on cloud computing could be because it is “waiting for something to go wrong” before it acts, a report has suggested.

More than 600 law firms and individuals have so far had their cards marked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over failures associated with the nomination of compliance officers, it has emerged. A further 139 investigations remain live.

Lemma, the failed Gibraltar-based solicitors’ indemnity insurer, has left run-off claims worth around £25m to be borne by the financial services industry in the wake of its collapse last year, it has emerged.

Alternative business structures with a turnover of more than £2m face fines of up to 2.5% of their turnover in cases of serious misconduct, under plans being considered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Alternative business structures, law firms and sole practitioners looking for authorisation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority will for the first time fill in the same form as the regulator steps up its risk-based approach.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is biting off more than it can chew by trying to deal with the financial stability of law firms, the Law Society chief executive has suggested. He also said law firms would do well to be scared by new entrants to the market.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson saw his remuneration package fall 16% last year, the society’s annual accounts have shown. The Law Society recorded a net deficit of £22.7m in 2012 – more than the £10m which had been budgeted for.

The cost of practising as a solicitor is set to rise at a rate of more than four times inflation, if the Law Society’s council approves figures that will be put before it later this week. The collection of £116.8m in fees from the profession is up £13.2m on this year.

Personal injury solicitors have urged the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to rethink its “unacceptable” refusal to ban inducements to claim. It comes as actuaries have warned that “claims farming is on the increase”.