Solicitors

A solicitor has been struck off for bringing judicial review claims on behalf of immigration clients that he knew were hopeless but would thwart or delay their removal from the UK and potentially even lead to their release from detention.

A boutique City litigation practice has successfully settled claims by a group of 48 investors against US law firm Locke Lord, it has emerged. Last month, the firm was fined a record £500,000 after a former partner was found to have run dubious high-yield investment schemes.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has again reached a highly unusual majority decision in the Leigh Day case, this time on the costs of the case. Two members of the tribunal decided that there should be no order for costs, but the third member argued that Leigh Day should be awarded 40% of its costs of the proceedings.

There is still some bad practice among personal injury firms – particularly around their relationships with work introducers and other third parties – but overall it is a positive picture of good practice and compliance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s has found. It also suggested that the low level of reported fraud was because defendant firms chose to opt for a discontinuance rather than press the issue.

Only a third of law firms are telling clients who make a complaint that they can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman if they are not satisfied with the outcome, research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found. The report also revealed limited support among firms for the compulsory publication of first-tier complaints data.

A solicitor who stole more than £300,000 of his elderly and disabled client’s money using a secret bank account has been struck off. He was found have committed the “outrageous plundering” of his client’s assets in a particularly “deplorable” case of dishonest conduct.

Insurance giant Allianz has warned the legal profession that its effort to clamp down on fraud will not stop at policyholders, after its investigations led to a solicitor being struck off for falsifying signatures on witness statements.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has removed from the profession two people at opposite ends of their careers – an 80-year-old solicitor who held unpaid disbursements in his office account, and a trainee solicitor who used client money to try and hide her mistakes.

Forcing law firms to publish prices could “bias” clients in favour of choosing their solicitor on price rather than quality or consumer protection, the Law Society has warned. It came with research commissioned by the society that suggested that once consumers understood that some legal services providers were unregulated, they were strongly put off them.

A non-lawyer working at leading Welsh firm Hugh James who forged a document in the name of an assistant solicitor has been banned from working in the profession. Meanwhile, a senior partner at a large City law firm has accepted a rebuke after being convicted of drink driving.

City giant Clifford Chance and partner Alexandros Panayides have agreed to pay fines of £50,000 each for conducting the infamous Excalibur case under an unlawful confidential fee agreement. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has approved an ‘agreed outcome’ that means a full hearing will not be held.

The Legal Services Board has rejected a call from its consumer panel to consider a centralised regime of financial protection for clients to replace what the panel called the “fragmented” nature of insurance and compensation arrangements across the different legal regulators.

The Bar Standards Board effectively killed the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) today – six years after it was meant to come into force – by saying it was pulling out to go in a different direction to assure the quality of criminal advocates. QASA was originally meant to start in December 2011.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has criticised both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and two former directors of a Preston law firm for their “careless and disrespectful approach” in applying for approval of an ‘agreed outcome’ only a day before their hearing. The pair were accused of multiple accounts rules breaches and also allowing non-solicitors to control the firm.

The head of a Bradford law firm has been struck off after being convicted of conspiracy to defraud the Legal Aid Agency and also failing to supervise an unpaid junior member of staff who is suspected of producing fraudulent decree absolutes – and whose surname nobody at the firm can remember.