Line of solicitors being marched through SDT for failure to pay insurance premiums
Fifteen solicitors have had sanctions imposed by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal – including indefinite suspensions – for failing to pay the premiums demanded while their firms were in the assigned risks pool, with 15 more still to face the tribunal.
Law Society backs alternative routes to qualification as Mayson airs fears over direction of LETR
The Legal Education and Training Review should lead to alternative routes to qualification through a modularised and work-based approach, the Law Society has said. It comes as Professor Stephen Mayson has expressed concern that the review is in danger of being subsumed by vested interests.
Consumers slowly getting the message that they don’t need CMCs, says Financial Ombudsman
There has been a fall in the number of consumers using claims management companies (CMCs) to make complaints about payment protection insurance mis-selling, while some CMCs are “disappointingly lax” in the way they pursue their clients’ cases, the Financial Ombudsman Service has reported.
Insolvency Service gives SRA a taste of its own medicine
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has had the tables turned after receiving a monitoring visit of its own from the Insolvency Service which then criticised the way it regulates solicitor insolvency practitioners.
IPReg set to apply this year to become ABS regulator number 3
The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) will apply this year to become an alternative business structure licensing authority, it has emerged, joining the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
Should prospective lawyers have to do pro bono work to qualify? New York says ‘yes’
Would-be lawyers in New York will have to undertake 50 hours of pro bono work before they can qualify, the profession’s regulator has decided in a landmark move. It comes as 6,000 lawyers walked around London yesterday to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for legal charities.
Goodbye solicitors, hello ‘regulated legal advisors’: consumer panel seeks radical training reform
Lawyers’ legal education and training should be aimed at the specific activities they will be authorised to practise rather than at achieving a particular title, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has urged.
Bar calls on judges to halt solicitor “abuse” of QASA
The Bar has called on judges to block solicitors appearing before them as plea-only advocates under the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. There were also calls for action to end the “corrupt practice” of criminal defence solicitors demanding referral fees.
Bar Standards Board hits back at “premature” LSB demands to single out immigration specialists
The Bar Standards Board is to push back against a Legal Services Board demand that it implement a regulatory regime for immigration specialist barristers by the end of 2012, saying the LSB has failed to produce evidence it is necessary.
Stobart Group to start advertising barrister-led service
The Stobart Group – which yesterday made the surprise announcement of its intention to enter legal services – will today begin advertising its barrister-led offering, which aims to cut out the “waste” of instructing a solicitor separately.
