Solicitors

Since the introduction of the SRA Handbook, firms have been asking whether they should introduce or improve a file review system. Corinne Staves, a senior associate at Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, considers the issues.

The Law Society’s criminal litigation accreditation scheme is redundant, has no influence on clients and plans for reaccreditation are strongly opposed by the profession, the body representing criminal law solicitors has claimed.

Concerns over the standard of will-writing by solicitors are based on limited evidence and the Solicitors Regulation Authority should not have to prove its ability to regulate such work, the Law Society has claimed.

A final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been amended at the last minute to take into account objections raised by the board of the Bar Standards Board.

There are more positive messages from the judiciary that they will take part in the new Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, and they are relaxed about the prospect of assessments being used for appeals against conviction, it was claimed last week.

The introduction of a lay majority on the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority moved a step closer yesterday after an advertisement for four new lay members and two solicitor members was published.

The number of solicitors struck off in the year to March dropped by 43%, while the number of negligence claims against solicitors reaching the High Court has also fallen, a flurry of new figures have shown.

Controversial proposals by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to end the requirement on practitioners to refer clients to independent financial advisers risk being misunderstood, a member of the SRA board warned last week.

Nearly half of all law firms have so far “engaged with the process” of appointing their COLPs and COFAs, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. Separately it laid out its imminent plans to survey every law firm about staff diversity.

The cost of practising as a solicitor will rise well above inflation this year, mainly to ensure the Law Society has the funds to compensate the victims of fraud, but also to make up the cost of IT project overruns.

IT project “cost overruns” have contributed to the Law Society budgeting for a £10m deficit this year, it has emerged. The 2011 accounts also reveal that chief executive Des Hudson received a 6.8% pay rise last year to £407,000 in total.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to recommend dropping the controversial ban on practitioners referring clients to tied financial advisers. Solicitors would instead have to ensure that the client is involved in the decision-making process that goes into any referral.

The Law Society will not be required to certify its compliance with the rules on internal governance because it is bound to fail the test, the Legal Services Board has decided. The board said the new governance arrangements are “somewhat fragile”.

Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has affirmed the government’s belief that the ban on referral fees will not catch solicitors’ collective marketing schemes, despite continuing concerns that the legislation does exactly that.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has for the first time sanctioned a solicitor who breached a regulatory settlement agreement that ended a Solicitors Regulation Authority investigation into him.