Solicitors

The practising certificate fee is set to fall by 16.7% to £350 in the coming year, it has emerged. The news comes as the Solicitors Regulation Authority should tomorrow approve provisions that will allow it to amend an alternative business structure’s turnover figure – upon which the SRA’s fees will be based – if it feels the number does not reflect the true value of the legal services provided.

A ban on referral fees is back on the Ministry of Justice’s agenda, a government adviser revealed yesterday. However, Mark Boleat told the Claims Standards Council conference in Manchester that he believed the arguments against a ban are “compelling”.

Clients of law firms that provide retail financial services advice and convert to become alternative business structures could find themselves without access to a compensation fund or the firm’s professional indemnity insurance because of a hole in the Legal Services Act, it has emerged.

A former Court of Appeal judge and the one-time senior partner of City law firm Simmons & Simmons have been appointed joint chairs of a new consultation panel to advise on the fundamental education and training review – now known as “Review 2020″.

The Legal Services Board is considering whether to consolidate the disciplinary regimes run by all the different legal regulators, it has emerged. Recent events “suggest we should explore the feasibility of rationalising existing mechanisms sooner rather than later”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards have been forced to change the name of their advocacy quality scheme after they were threatened with legal action.

The number of solicitors from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland requalifying in England and Wales soared by an amazing 1383% ahead of last September’s changes to the transfer regime for foreign lawyers, Solicitors Regulation Authority figures have revealed.

Advocates seeking accreditation under the quality assurance for advocates (QAA) scheme will be allowed to opt for an assessment centre route rather than judges’ evaluations alone, under new proposals being debated today.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced the first research into continuing professional development in the legal profession for a quarter of a century. As first reported by Legal Futures in February, it has appointed Professor Andrew Boon of Westminster University to conduct the research.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority could “mystery shop” conveyancing firms to check whether their costs information and publicity about charges are misleading, it has revealed. At the same time, the Legal Services Board announced that it is to consider a major review of conveyancing.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority should investigate the practice of panels of solicitors taking cases from before-the-event legal expenses insurers on a conditional fee basis after paying referral fees, a consumer watchdog has argued.

Proposals from the “timid” Solicitors Regulation Authority to reform the market for professional indemnity insurance are inadequate and will only worsen already fears for the future of the market, the Association of British Insurers has warned. However, the SRA’s blueprint has been welcomed by the Law Society and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has radically reworked its reforms of professional indemnity insurance, delaying the end of common renewal for two years and kicking the question of compulsory cover for financial institutions into the long grass. Solicitors will also be liable to pay up to £30m of claims arising from the ARP during its final year.

The legal regulatory system is “defective” and in time it might be right for a single regulator to replace the eight frontline regulators, the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Charles Plant, told yesterday’s Legal Futures Conference.

Solicitors, law firms and would-be alternative business structures today get first sight of the new SRA Handbook, the 563-page guide to practising and running a legal practice. The Handbook – delivered on schedule and exactly six months before it is due to come into force – introduces the profession to outcomes-focused regulation.