Solicitors

The Law Society has refused to comment on speculation that it is to launch its own professional indemnity insurance offering for law firms. Legal Futures understands that it has been examining a managing general agency model.

A lack of transparency in complex business structures and ‘contagion’ from one part of a group to the law firm member are among the potential risks identified today by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in its first-ever risk outlook.

The Law Society has dismissed the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s call to consider a single compensation fund for all legal service providers. It claimed that the panel’s report “lacks the degree of rigour necessary for it to be considered seriously”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has finally given ground over unrated insurers and is to investigate again whether it should introduce financial eligibility criteria. The regulator has launched an assessment of the “full implications” of such a move.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not be banning personal injury firms from offering inducements to clients to instruct them, but has warned that they need to consider whether doing so fuels a compensation culture.

There is a good standard of legal education and training in England and Wales – “for the most part” – but quality, accessibility and flexibility need to be enhanced “to ensure the system remains fit for the future”, the Legal Education and Training Review research report has concluded.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has pledged to undertake a “radical review of the skills and knowledge required to merit qualification as a solicitor” as part of its response to the findings of the Legal Education and Training Review research report, which was published today.

The Legal Services Board has been critical of the length of the time the Solicitors Regulation Authority has taken to approve alternative business structures, it has emerged.

The 1,300 law firms who have their professional indemnity insurance with Balva face the prospect of having four weeks to find new cover if the winding-up process the Latvian company started yesterday becomes an “insolvency event”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will consider fast-tracking alternative business structure (ABS) applicants who want to bid for the government’s proposed criminal legal aid contracts, Legal Futures can reveal.

Law firms must not allow arrangements with debt recovery companies to compromise their independence, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned, after two solicitors were fined heavily for allowing litigation to be carried out in their name.

Around 30 of the top 200 law firms in England and Wales are under intensive supervision from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) because of fears about their financial stability, it emerged yesterday.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is working its way through the hundreds of firms and individuals facing enforcement action over compliance officer failures – but has now found another 205 firms that require investigation.

A scheme that offers solicitors a “lifeline” by enabling them to continue working with personal injury referrers was launched today by well-known legal IT firm Epoq. The company has created LegalGo, a free legal assistance plan.

A significant number of businesses involved in the personal injury market have been acting in breach of the referral fee ban since it came in on 1 April, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority warned yesterday.