Solicitors

The Bar has called on judges to block solicitors appearing before them as plea-only advocates under the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. There were also calls for action to end the “corrupt practice” of criminal defence solicitors demanding referral fees.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to push ahead with changes to the SRA Handbook that will leave it to in-house lawyers to decide whether the law requires that their legal teams become alternative business structures.

The minimum salary for trainee solicitors will be scrapped on 1 August 2014, the board of the SRA decided yesterday, saying it is not the job of a regulator to control wages. Firms will be required to pay the national minimum wage of £6.08 an hour.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to delay the compliance officer regime, it has emerged. The scheme for compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs) and for finance and administration (COFAs) was due to go live on 1 November.

Solicitors Regulation Authority plans to introduce multi-million pound fines for law firms are a “significant breach of Parliament’s intentions” and in any case wrong on policy grounds, the Law Society has claimed.

A Birmingham law firm is considering action against the Solicitors Regulation Authority for failures which it claims led to it being tricked by a bogus practice as part of a mortgage fraud and now facing a court order to repay £184,500 to the lender.

The Legal Services Board has called on the government to support a bid by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a massive increase in the amount it can fine law firms. The SRA wants to increase its power to fine law firms from £2,000 to £250m, and to £50m for individuals.

A rash of bogus law firms in recent months has persuaded the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to publish guidance for solicitors on guarding against identity theft. It has issued six warnings about bogus firms or branch offices of legitimate firms in the past six months.

Twelve regulators and professional bodies from the legal, accountancy, financial and property sectors have finally signed a formal agreement aimed at co-ordinating the oversight of multi-disciplinary practices.

Scrapping the minimum salary for trainee solicitors is likely to stimulate more training contracts – but the majority will pay below the current minimum level, a Solicitors Regulation Authority report has concluded. However, the negative impact on diversity is not as clear-cut as critics think.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has laid bare the litany of complaints about the botched 2011 practising certificate renewal process. Introduction of the mySRA system was beset by technical problems.

Solicitors Regulation Authority is acting unreasonably by leaving it to in-house lawyers to decide whether the law requires that their legal teams become alternative business structures, the Law Society has claimed.

The third edition of the SRA Handbook in just seven months has gone live after being approved by the Legal Services Board. A fourth edition in less than a year since the Handbook went live on 6 October 2011 should be necessary in June.

Four bodies have already put themselves forward to regulate will-writers following the Legal Services Board’s proposal that will-writing become a reserved legal activity, with all making their intentions clear at this week’s Legal Futures conference.

The UK is on the cusp of a “litigation revolution” involving boutique alternative business structures offering externally-funded contingency fee deals, according to the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, speaking at yesterday’s Legal Futures conference.