News

---

Unregulated legal services providers are generally cheaper and more innovative than regulated law firms, but consumers need to understand the risks of using them, Legal Services Board research has found. The small scale of the problems they cause is such that the oversight regulator said it would not take steps to introduce regulation.

The Law Society has told MPs that plans to give the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and other regulators full independence should be shelved because of the uncertainty caused by the EU Referendum. The society and SRA also clashed on the former’s bid to take over control of setting professional standards.

A former employment solicitor at trade union firm Thompsons who was only elected as an MP last year was yesterday named the Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn replaced most of this shadow cabinet after the unprecedented string of resignations.

The stock market falls on the back of the EU Referendum has hit an ABS-owning property company the most, as well AIM-listed legal businesses with a personal injury (PI) element, a Legal Futures analysis has shown. The PI hit looks surprising given that the current state of political uncertainty is likely to be good news for the claimant market.

Yesterday’s Shadow Cabinet rebellion has included the resignation of the two top legal figures in the Labour Party – Shadow Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Shadow Attorney General Karl Turner. Lord Falconer, well known as a close ally of Tony Blair, gave no statement as to why he resigned, but Mr Turner – MP for Hull East – published on Twitter the letter he sent to leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The Law Society’s budgeted costs of £637,000 to defend the competition law action brought over its Conveyancing Quality Scheme are disproportionate and should be capped at nearly half that amount, the president of the Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled. The society has instructed City giant Norton Rose Fulbright.

The Bar’s professional indemnity insurer has been ordered to reimburse a barrister after it withdrew funding for him to defend disciplinary proceedings because he wanted to appoint a non-panel solicitor. The Financial Ombudsman Service found that Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund did not act reasonably.

People with complaints about claims management companies (CMCs) are more likely to receive a financial remedy from their credit card provider than the Legal Ombudsman, it has emerged. The most three most complained-about CMCs have since surrendered their authorisation, leaving questions about whether consumers actually receive the compensation ordered.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal against a decision that cleared two solicitors of “dishonest assistance in a breach of trust”, in this case a mortgage fraud. In its decision, the Court of Appeal had warned that findings of dishonesty, especially against solicitors, should not be made without “the most careful consideration” of what they say in their defence.

A client cannot blame the failure of solicitors to send a land transaction return to the taxman so as to avoid a fine for late filing, a tribunal has ruled. Andrew Oliver appealed against the penalty imposed on him for the failure to submit the return within the 30 days allowed. Instead it was submitted 252 days later.