Property

Immigration and civil litigation were the two areas of legal practice hit hardest by the pandemic last year, with private client and family law “insulated” from the impact, new research has found.

A national panel of law firms is being created to allow estate agents and members of the public to find conveyancers prepared to provide buyers with upfront property transaction packs.

Convey Law has become the first law firm to join the government’s Document Checking Service pilot, meaning it can check information contained in UK passports against government records.

A solicitor jailed for more than three years for forging Land Registry documents in a family dispute with the owners of a Newcastle takeaway has been struck off.

Simplify, the private equity-owned group that leads the conveyancing market, is now one of the largest legal businesses in the country with a turnover of £139m last year, its accounts have shown.

A solicitor acted for both sides in a house sale at an undervalue between a 78-year-old woman and her 34-year-old boyfriend, which was set aside by the High Court on the grounds of undue influence.

National law firm Irwin Mitchell has been granted summary judgment in a professional negligence claim because the retainer prevented its former client assigning his cause of action.

Listed law firm Ince has launched a product to help estate agents onboard clients in a way that meets the demands of anti-money laundering regulations.

Rethinking the home-buying process – including bringing an end to caveat emptor – and putting digital justice on a firm footing are among projects being considered by the Law Commission.

A solicitor who forged a qualified colleague’s signature on conveyancing documents while still a trainee has been struck off, with a tribunal rejecting her claim that she had been authorised to do it.

HM Land Registry published its first Digital Identity Standard last week, offering conveyancers a ‘safe harbour’ if they use it to verify their client’s identity digitally.

A former solicitor who had access to the files of matters he had referred to his conveyancing manager wife has been given the lowest-level sanction by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

Conveyancers are facing more cliff edges and greater pressures on their practices following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to extend the stamp duty holiday.

Conveyancers have urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak not to extend the stamp duty holiday and instead focus on allowing those who have instructed a lawyer by a certain date to complete.

A solicitor left clients “high and dry” by failing to register their property purchases and pay stamp duty, while misappropriating some £175,000 of their money, a tribunal has found.