Compliance & Regulation

A barrister who tried to claim double the £500 fee he had agreed with his solicitor by providing the court with a fake fee note has been disbarred.

The High Court has dismissed a judicial review of a decision by the Legal Ombudsman to reject a complaint about a law firm made 18 years after the service was provided.

The stance of the SRA over SLAPPs will make lawyers reluctant to act on cases that could fall foul of the SLAPPs Bill going through Parliament, the Society of Media Lawyers has warned.

Legal regulators should consider explaining to the public “the benefits of using technology and innovation to access legal services”, the Legal Services Board has said.

A licensed conveyancer who lied to a client and fabricated a letter to him, lied to her law firm about it and then lied again to her regulator has been disqualified for 10 years.

A direct access barrister who lied to a client over files that were accidentally destroyed by his chambers has been suspended for six months by a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

The High Court has ruled that a law firm and four of its former partners must repay money borrowed under loan agreements with a husband and his wife.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority blitz on breaches of anti-money laundering rules has continued, with more than £76,000 in fines handed out to a solicitor and four law firms.

A solicitor who used a client’s £132,000 divorce settlement to pay off her tax bill and give money to her daughter has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Law firms’ conduct of cases involving privacy and reputation appears to have improved over the past 18 months, according to new research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The collapse of SSB Law and impact on its former clients came to the attention of Rishi Sunak this week after it was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions.

People facing legal problems are becoming less likely to seek professional help and, even when they do, are slowly turning away from solicitors, major new research has found.

A solicitor who lied to litigation clients about sending pre-action protocol letters and failed to tell one of them about a costs offer until it expired has been struck off.

A “myopic interpretation of acting in the client’s best interests” is one of the reasons why lawyers who acted for the Post Office crossed lines, a barrister acting for sub-postmasters has suggested.

All 6,626 candidates who took the SQE1 in January have had their results reissued after marking errors meant 175 who thought they had failed actually passed.