PM Law: Sheffield HQ
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has already paid out £9.3m to clients of the collapsed PM Law Group, it revealed today.
This is made up of £5.6m was paid from the statutory trust – which is how the SRA holds money that was in the firm’s client account at the time of intervention – and £3.7m from the SRA compensation fund.
Most of the money relates to property transactions.
The SRA said it has received more than 250 applications to the compensation fund and has paid out on 38 of the most urgent ones.
“This is a complex process, and we are working through applications as quickly as possible,” it said today in an update.
“We need to make sure that we deal with all applications fairly and the right people get the right amount of money returned. It will take some time to resolve these matters, so we continue to request understanding and patience whilst we do this.”
SRA chief executive Sara Rapson told Legal Futures last month that the SRA would not need to make an in-year call to bolster the compensation fund.
But she confirmed it had uncovered a “potential fraud” at PM Law – which closed suddenly at the start of February – and that client money was missing. The group was made up of 11 firms and more than 30 trading names.
It has taken possession of tens of thousands of files, including thousands of boxes of documents from 25 different offices.
Over 17,000 clients have been emailed so far with information about what steps they need to take and how they can request their files. It has released more than 3,600 client files so far. The SRA has also responded to more than 10,000 emails and phone calls.
The update said: “There is still considerable work to do, but we want to assure all clients that we are working through the remaining cases as quickly as possible.”
