Other lawyers

A woman has been jailed for fraud and providing unqualified immigration advice and services, with her husband sentenced to community service.

The pandemic has led to “dramatic” change for notaries, introducing electronic notarisation of documents for the first time, a leading scrivener notary has said.

Former government minister David Heath takes over as the new chair of the Costs Lawyer Standards Board this week, arguing for greater protection of the costs lawyer profession.

The Legal Services Board has rejected a code of conduct for complainants proposed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for the probate practices it regulates.

Twenty law firms and seven comparison and review websites have signed up to a regulator-run pilot that will test how they can best work together to improve the information available to consumers.

Money laundering, buyer-funded developments, and acting for both sides are among the risks highlighted in the Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ first Compliance Risk Agenda.

The Legal Services Board is pushing ahead with plans to introduce continuing competence checks for lawyers. This could include feedback from consumers, judges and peers, assurance visits or revalidation.

The Legal Services Board has introduced new rules to ensure legal regulators explain more clearly how they spend the money they raise through the compulsory levies on lawyers.

Three regulators are joining forces to pilot ways for law firms to engage better with comparison websites and online review platforms, starting with conveyancing and employment work.

The Legal Ombudsman’s proposed 19% budget increase is not justified, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has said in calling for an external task force to help it deal with complaints more quickly.

Directors from two legal businesses which generated £2.5m in fees by providing unregulated immigration advice have been fined nearly £17,000 and ordered to pay over £28,000 in compensation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have been given a clean bill of health by the Legal Services Board in its latest assessment of regulators’ performance.

There was a muted reaction to yesterday’s call from the Competition and Markets Authority for a review of legal regulation, with CILEx the most prominent supporter.

Transparency over referral fees in conveyancing work will drive out bad practice, a government official said yesterday, while also calling for greater consistency in how law firms publish their prices.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is considering a new push to regulate reserved legal activities, three years after its last attempt was knocked back.