Solicitors

A solicitor who was jailed last year for stealing millions from her clients and the Church of England has seen the amount she has to pay back increased by £500,000 – to nearly £2.5m – or face a further eight years in prison. The Court of Appeal said a circuit judge wrong to reduce the value of various ‘tainted’ gifts she had given to her family from the stolen money.

The Legal Services Board has approved an initial application by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. Despite intense pressure, LSB chief executive Neil Buckley said there were “no grounds” to reject the SRA’s application, setting out the framework for the regime.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has completely cleared a solicitor at Preston-based personal injury firm Barber & Co of serious allegations, including that he had wrongly taken success fees from clients’ damages. The SDT also cleared the firm’s principal, Arif Barber, of the most serious allegations.

A conveyancing fee-earner who covered up her mistakes by paying two lenders what they were owed out of her own pocket has been banned from working in the profession. The Solicitors Regulation Authority said it was “undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice”.

A solicitor who assaulted his “coercive and manipulative” mother after they had both been drinking has been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for four months. He played the tribunal an audio recording in which his mother “repeatedly used foul language about his sister”, stating that she hated her.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today unveiled its second attempt to reduce the compulsory level of professional indemnity insurance to £500,000 – although conveyancers would have to secure £1m in cover. It also wants to turn the Compensation Fund explicitly into a ‘hardship’ fund and ban relatively wealthy people from claiming on it.

A company promoting stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes has been censured for making it look as though the Solicitors Regulation Authority endorsed its activities. Both HM Revenue & Customs and a tax lawyer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the website of Fiducia Wealth & Tax.

National law firm Laytons has been fined £20,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for using its client account as a banking facility for a European network of law firms, a foreign client and a tax practitioners’ group. Three of the firm’s longest serving partners were also fined.

A Preston law firm has hit back strongly at suggestions by leading holiday company TUI that it may have acted unethically and even illegally in acting on a holiday sickness case that was found to be ‘fundamentally dishonest’.

The Legal Services Board has come under unprecedented pressure to reject plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a centralised Solicitors Qualifying Examination. City lawyers, law lecturers and Welsh speakers have called on the LSB not to approve the application, while MPs asked for the decision to be postponed for six months.

A solicitor who “took advantage” of his position at the law centre where he worked by privately charging immigration and asylum clients ineligible for legal aid has been struck off. He charged clients a total of £8,000 on a private paying basis while working at the Gloucester Law Centre.

A solicitor who took £1m from the legal aid fund by fabricating cases and making hundreds of improper claims, and then abandoned his practice, has been struck off. On the first day of a two-day Legal Aid Agency visit, he said he had a problem with one of his children and had to leave – the investigating officer never saw him again.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s warning about using non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual harassment puts solicitors in a difficult position and may even discourage reporting, it has been claimed.

A solicitor who bombarded a work colleague with “deeply offensive” and racist messages has been fined £5,000 after a tribunal found that a reduction in the medication he was on led to the misconduct. It did not accept the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s argument that he had a duty to maintain his health and ensure the messages were not sent.

Six former leaders of defunct firm Cobbetts have been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for their actions as the firm was going under. However, the Solicitors Regulation Authority withdrew an allegation that they exhibited “manifest incompetence” in the way they ran the firm.