Solicitors

A family law solicitor who held out his unregulated company as being an authorised law firm has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is the second such case in a matter of weeks and it has again been resolved by way of a regulatory settlement agreement.

A ban on estate agents charging solicitors referral fees along with loosening the restriction on conveyancers acting for both seller and buyer were suggested by the government yesterday as possible reforms to improve the home-buying process. It also said it wanted to look at how competition in the conveyancing sector could be improved.

A sole practitioner who was struck off six years ago has won the right to sue for loans he made before his East London firm was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A deputy High Court judge ruled that eight out of 19 loans at issue did not vest in the Law Society (acting through the SRA) on the date of the intervention.

A solicitor has been struck off for engaging in “a systematic course of conduct designed to undermine the immigration system”. His actions amounted to a “persistent” abuse of court process by issuing meritless judicial reviews to get his clients’ removal from the UK delayed, a tribunal ruled, saying its decision should act as a deterrent to others.

A personal injury solicitor convicted of benefit fraud after being paid for case referrals while receiving employment support allowance has been struck off. He was convicted of dishonestly failing to promptly notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in circumstances which he knew would affect his entitlement to benefit.

A solicitor who was suspended indefinitely after failing to pay his firm’s indemnity insurance premiums and later became bankrupt has been allowed to return to the profession by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Imposing conditions to prevent him managing a firm, the SDT said the bankruptcy had wiped out the debt relating to the insurance premiums.

The Legal Services Board has approved a rule change by the Solicitors Regulation Authority which will make it easier for law firms to switch regulators. In a move which is likely to see more firms leave the SRA than join it, the requirement that they must obtain six years of run-off cover before switching to another regulator will be removed.

Conservative MPs yesterday cautioned the government against over-reacting to the abuses in the personal injury market by taking away the right of genuinely injured people to sue. Bob Neill, the chairman of the justice select committee, also warned the SRA that it needed to focus more on rogue PI solicitors than arguments with the Law Society over independent regulation.

An assistant solicitor and his firm have been handed hefty fines after the failure of a Chinese wall between two clients, a woman and her abusive husband, led to the man being told her new address against her specific instructions.

A solicitor who failed to ask for either personal or professional references before recruiting a conveyancer who went on to carry out a series of frauds, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Among the documents forged by the fraudster was a practising certificate from the previous year.

The Legal Services Board has marked as “sufficient” action plans produced by legal regulators to introduce price transparency and release other information to the public to help with purchasing decisions. The verdict on the original action plans published at the end of June came in the wake of the regulators moving to the next stage of consulting on how they would implement transparency.

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the case of a solicitor who said the Solicitors Regulation Authority deprived him of the chance to challenge the decision to close down his law firm. Yesterday’s ruling came nearly four years after the solicitor had lodged his case.

Three partners whose supervision failure led to a trusted paralegal stealing £400,000 from their firm’s clients have accepted rebukes and fines instead of being referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The paralegal took most of the money through a stamp duty land tax scam.

The Legal Services Board has been warned against trying to force the introduction of the civil standard of proof in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal without proper consultation. The Law Society said it was “inappropriate” for the board to use performance assessments of the regulators it oversees to require them to introduce a lower standard.

A law firm compliance officer who stole more than £500,000 from her law firm after being caught up in an online “romance scam” with what she thought was an American serviceman, has accepted a ban from working again in the solicitors’ profession.