Solicitors

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is to carry out a wide-ranging review of financial protection during which the very existence of compulsory insurance for solicitors will be questioned.

Many conveyancing law firms are ill-prepared to comply with anti-money laundering obligations despite property being the number one target of criminals seeking to invest the proceeds of crime, a leading expert in the field told an AML conference in London last week.

Solicitors have agreed to pay back to clients over £1 million to end investigations being conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Legal Futures can reveal.

The move from regulating individuals to regulating entities means threatens to make undertakings less effective than in the past and so recipients need to take extra care, explains Iain Miller of Bevan Brittan.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will this week ask the Law Society Council for around £22 million to invest in a new IT system, Legal Futures can reveal. The ‘Enabling Programme’ will also offer benefits to the wider Law Society but has come in at more than 50% more than estimated a year ago.

Consumers of legal services are not tempted by the prospect of household name brands moving into legal services, research has found. It also revealed that ‘expense’ or ‘expensive’ was the word most commonly associated with the word ‘solicitor’, while almost half of those interviewed felt the experience represented poor value for money.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today laid out the detail of its proposed new approach to regulation, including first sight of an outcomes-based code of conduct that at 46 pages is around a sixth the size of the current code.

Martin Gregory of Solicitors Referrals questions whether paying referral fees is actually the most sensible business model for law firms, despite the appeal of an increased workload.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority began a series of road shows in London this week to introduce the new approach to regulation of solicitors following the implementation of the Legal Services Act 2007. The event was very well attended, reflecting a high level of interest in the profession.

The Law Society has issued further reassurance to the 2,911 law firms insured by Quinn that there is no reason to fear for the strength of their cover. It came on the same day as the society also issued a practice note on the position if a qualifying insurer goes insolvent.

Referral fees should not be banned, but require greater disclosure and more stringent regulation, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has concluded. This could include conveyancing clients providing written consent to be referred and a ban on auctions for work.

The Legal Services Board’s powers to seize control of regulation from the approved regulators is unnecessary and casts a shadow over the independence of the legal profession, the Law Society president has claimed.

There are to be four extra core professional duties when the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) unveils a slimmed-down Code of Conduct later this week, it has emerged. The draft 40-page code – which will form part of an online Solicitors Handbook bringing together all of the SRA’s regulatory regime – is at the heart of next year’s move to outcomes-focused regulation.

File reviews are generally seen by law firms as something they must implement to ensure they comply but the benefits are so often overlooked, explains Jaunita Gobby of compliance consultancy Legal Eye

Referral fees in personal injury and conveyancing do not harm consumers and so there is no case to ban them or take any other regulatory action, a major piece of research released today has concluded. In fact, it found that referral fees actually result in cheaper conveyancing fees and improved access to justice for injured people.