Solicitors

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has forced a solicitor and the regulator to increase the sanction they had agreed he should receive, after concluding that it was too lenient. He was in the dock for failing, as his firm’s COFA, to report serious accounts rules breaches to the SRA.

The Lord Chief Justice has called for judges to be appointed to the boards of the main legal regulators to ensure “tough standards of ethical behaviour and competence” in litigation. Lord Thomas said it seemed “very odd” that the judiciary was not represented on the boards of the SRA, BSB and CILEx Regulation.

The chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) yesterday tried to cool emotions after former Lord Chancellor Michael Gove’s criticism of solicitor-advocates, saying that “the label matters less than the content of the bottle”.

More serious criminal defence work should be restricted to barristers, and solicitor-advocates who want to do it should have to requalify, the former Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove, has suggested. He also called for a “higher-quality filter” for those wanting to become barristers and reiterated his support for a levy on City law firms to aid those less fortunate.

Privately educated people still dominate the legal profession, with barriers to entry for those from less affluent backgrounds are even more acute at the Bar than among solicitors, the Social Mobility Commission said yesterday.

A solicitor who has failed to comply with a decision of the Legal Ombudsman and then a court order enforcing it is facing jail after she did not show up at the committal hearing. She has been given one final chance to explain herself or go to prison for 14 days.

An insurance claims handler who admitted to illegally passing on customer details to a law firm and adding friends and family to genuine claims has been ordered to pay back £37,000 by Liverpool Crown Court at a confiscation hearing or face an extended jail term.

The High Court has given the green light to a solicitor to pursue claims against the Crown Prosecution Service and South Wales Police for malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office. He argues that they engaged in an improper operation designed to prevent him practising as a solicitor.

A personal injury solicitor who put his relationship with work referrers ahead of his duties to the clients they passed on to him has been struck off. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found one instance where he paid a client’s damages to a referrer without authority “extraordinary”.

It is time to consider lowering the burden of proof used by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal from the criminal to the civil standard, Sir Brian Leveson, the president of the Queen’s Bench Division has said. The case saw the tribunal criticised for using the criminal standard to overturn a decision made by the SRA on the civil standard.

A senior partner whose firm’s involvement in stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes brought in £52,000 in fees – but cost the taxman at least £3m – has accepted a £1,500 fine. He failed to ensure the disclosure of material information to lender clients, and allowed the firm to act where there were conflicts of interest.

A solicitor in debt to HM Revenue & Customs who supplied legal services without complying with a condition that he had first to give the taxman security for the VAT, has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor has been struck off after taking hundreds of thousands of pounds in client money and covering his tracks by forging a host of documents – from bank statements to building regulations certificates – and also falsifying leading counsel’s opinion.

Three solicitors who used legal aid money meant to pay for disbursements to cover their firm’s overheads have been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Meanwhile, the regulator has made orders against non-solicitors who stole money and stationery from their firms.

The solicitor who caused an uproar in June when he sent out a series of tweets appearing to gloat over defeating cases brought by parents of children with special educational needs and disability, has accepted a rebuke from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.