SDT anonymity ruling “breached principle of open justice”, High Court rules
A decision by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to grant retrospective anonymity to a solicitor who had only been found guilty of a technical rule breach flouted the principle of open justice, the High Court has ruled. The tribunal made a decision that was “wrong in principle and not one which it could rationally make”.
DIY legal site experiments with ‘robot’ lawyer
A student who set up a DIY website to help consumers challenge parking tickets, and claim compensation for delayed travel or missold PPI, has added a natural-language ‘robot lawyer’ to draft documents. It has been welcomed by the solicitor who created a ground-breaking automated website aimed at helping people charged with motoring offences.
Almost half of asylum seekers unhappy with their lawyers, report finds
Almost half of asylum seekers are not satisfied with the service provided by their lawyers, a report for the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman has found. It exposed how some firms paid interpreters to recruit asylum seeker clients at ports and detention centres.
City lawyers “privately regulated by clients”
A “tranche” of top commercial lawyers “has effectively become privately regulated by the clients they seek to serve”, a leading academic has said. Dr Steven Vaughan said some were “happy to be captured” by clients.
LeO to spend less on complaints about law firms and more on CMCs
The Legal Ombudsman has set out plans for further cuts in the amount it spends on complaints about law firms, but more on claims management companies. LeO also warned that the Ministry of Justice was imposing “increasingly restrictive spending controls”.
City solicitor accepts fine from SRA over assault conviction
A City law firm partner has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after an assault conviction for a “domestic incident”. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, but retains the support of his firm.
No plans to monitor whether insurers pass on whiplash savings, says government
The government will not be monitoring insurance companies to ensure that they pass on to policyholders the savings they make from its planned personal injury reforms, a minister has admitted. Just after Christmas, the government announced that leading insurers have committed to giving customers 100% of the savings.
Case-tracking app will enable us to become biggest conveyancers, new ABS says
An ambitious new firm of licensed conveyancers has developed its own case-tracking app in a bid to become the biggest conveyancing business in the country. Managing director Simon Bath said the firm had funding from individual investors and private equity.
Confusion the biggest threat to new competence regime, survey suggests
Confusion among solicitors is the biggest challenge to the hours-free competence regime introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, a survey has suggested. The second biggest challenge was that “solicitors think they won’t have to do any training”.
Competiton and Markets Authority to investigate legal services
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a study of the legal services sector for consumers and small businesses so as to examine “long-standing concerns” about affordability and standards of service. The CMA said concerns had also been raised about the “complexity of the current regulatory framework”.
