Private Client

A partner who billed for her time ‘considering’ matters but did not detail in attendance notes what she had actually done has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The High Court has invalidated a will prepared by a solicitor who was aware of the client’s “paranoid delusions” but did not investigate whether they affected his testamentary capacity.

The Legal Services Board has granted permission for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants to formally pull out of probate regulation, having refused it in January.

The government has refused to rule out replacing the witnessing of lasting powers of attorney with electronic signatures despite widespread opposition in a consultation.

Co-operative Legal Services – the poster child of the alternative business structure era – is planning major expansion over the next five years to become a £100m operation.

A fast-growing law firm specialising only in contentious probate is launching a network to support non-specialist firms later this month, to be followed by two tech products.

The value of the wills, trusts and probate market topped £2bn for the first time last year, with contentious work on the rise, and law firms’ grip on will-writing work continuing to slip.

The way a solicitor went about preparing a £100m will was “reckless and quite possibly dishonest”, the High Court ruled yesterday.

An immigration solicitor certified a lasting power of attorney for a walk-in client without checking his capacity, allowing the man’s son and attorney to misuse some of his money.

The Legal Services Board has refused to ‘de-designate’ an accountancy body as a probate regulator over concerns that its members are now practising unregulated.

Lawyers have welcomed yesterday’s government’s decision to renew the temporary legislation allowing for the remote witnessing of wills for another two years.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is finally set to impose compulsory price transparency on the accountancy firms that offer probate services.

Listed law firm Ince has heralded a return to City firms offering private client services by launching an integrated private wealth offering for corporate clients.

Justice secretary Dominic Raab is “in the market for something quite drastic and bold” to reduce the number of private law family cases in the courts, he said yesterday in a wide-ranging discussion.

A solicitor who “dumped” hundreds of hours of unjustified time on a largely completed file in a bid to meet his billing targets has been suspended for nine months.