Legal Services Act

Conveyancers should continue to support the sales process “as far as possible” but look to change dates of completion during the lockdown, the government said yesterday.

Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a centralised test for solicitors wanting higher rights of audience have divided opinions among organisations and individual solicitors.

National firm Knights is to cut the salaries of all staff earning over £30,000 and has started a redundancy exercise, while fellow listed law firm Ince has cancelled its dividend payout.

The government has urged home buyers and renters to delay moving to a new house if possible during the coronavirus lockdown and said there must be social distancing if they cannot.

Criminal defence solicitors have threatened to stop attending police stations and a protocol to protect pupil barristers was published among efforts to protect the profession during the pandemic.

Listed law firm Gateley yesterday cancelled a dividend payout to ensure its short-term liquidity in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland yesterday praised lawyers for their “heroic efforts” in trying to keep trials going, but said the government was being criticised too harshly.

The Competition and Markets Authority has called for alternative business structures to be allowed in Scotland, and for a shift to the independent regulation of lawyers.

The leader of the North Eastern Circuit has urged his members not to attend any court hearings today in the wake of the government’s decision last night to lock down the UK.

The trial of nine lawyers over an alleged plot to scam £11m from the legal aid system was abandoned last Friday after several counsel withdrew to self-isolate.

MPs on the justice select committee have endorsed the appointment of Elisabeth Davies as chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, the board that oversees the Legal Ombudsman.

More use of fixed fees and an increase in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s fining powers are among recommendations made today by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

Arizona has become the first state in the US to formally seek the introduction of alternative business structures, it has emerged.

A union representing legal workers has expressed “outrage” at the “classist allocation of risk” that is seeing law firm partners working from home while other staff are forced into the office.

Barristers who follow official guidance on Covid-19 will not be in breach of their professional obligations, the BSB has said amid a range of developments in the courts, PI and conveyancing.