Solicitors

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.

The Financial Services and Markets Tribunal has upheld a Financial Services Authority (FSA) decision permanently banning a solicitor from working in any capacity in financial services and fining him and the FSA-regulated law firm of which he is senior partner, £400,000.

The Court of Appeal has given the Law Society permission to intervene in a case in which Prudential is seeking to extend legal professional privilege beyond the legal profession.

There has been a sharp increase in the numbers of law firms closed and solicitors struck off, Legal Futures has discovered. Figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority show it intervened in 31% more firms in the year to 31 March 2010, while there was a 58% jump in strike-offs by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will be able to formally rebuke solicitors and fine them up to £2,000 from next month, it has been confirmed. However, the potential conflict between the civil standard of proof that will be applied in such cases and the criminal standard used by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal – which will hear appeals against SRA decisions – has not yet been resolved and is likely to require further work.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority today pushed ahead with reforms to the assigned risks pool (ARP) despite the threat of a legal challenge from the Black Solicitors Network. March’s “in principle” decision to close the ARP to new firms and halve the length of time firms can spend in it to a year was confirmed after the board considered a full equality impact assessment which concluded that both proposals had a potential adverse impact on race equality.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority today recognised that it has “much to do” to build the confidence of law firms in their regulator if it is to succeed in delivering outcomes-focused regulation (OFR). The launch today of its consultation on how OFR will work also came with words of caution from the Law Society about the implementation timetable, cost and regulatory burden that may result.

Plans for a contract that will allow barristers to sue solicitors for unpaid fees, and a blacklist of solicitors who fail to pay up on all cases, rather than just privately funded ones, have been unveiled by the Bar Council.

One of Lord Justice Jackson’s own assessors – the Senior Costs Judge, Peter Hurst – has cast doubt on the judge’s recommendation that referral fees be abolished, it has emerged. The news comes ahead of two influential reports examining referral fees that are to be published next month.

Law firms currently in the assigned risk pool (ARP) have paid just 22% of their insurance premiums, while insurers are rapidly increasing the reserve for claims these firms may cause, it has emerged. The 262 firms currently in the ARP were liable for £7.5 million in premiums – both record figures – of which just £1.7 million has been paid.

The Law Society has told the 2,911 law firms which have their professional indemnity insurance with Quinn that they do not need to take action at the moment, despite a warning that they may have to seek fresh cover within four weeks of the company’s provisional administration being confirmed.

The Bar Standards Board has fired a warning shot across the bows of its solicitor counterpart, warning that “there will be instances where outcomes-based regulation is likely to be inadequate on its own, even if supplemented by guidance”.

The Legal Services Board has delayed a decision on whether the civil standard of proof should apply to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new powers to publicly rebuke and fine solicitors because of concerns raised by the Law Society and Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has overcome a raft of concerns from the Legal Services Board to win approval for the new Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme. Some 26% of new solicitors in 2009 were either former barristers or international lawyers.

The new scheme for solicitors to acquire rights of audience will finally go live on 1 April after the Ministry of Justice gave the SRA the go-ahead. Qualification will be through an assessment based on competence standards, with no experience exemption any more.