Compliance & Regulation

The Legal Ombudsman has proposed a 10.2% increase in its budget, or £1.8m, as it struggles to bring down the longstanding backlog of complaints.

The review of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s handling of Axiom Ince shows it missed an opportunity to uncover the fraud a year before it eventually shut the firm down.

Law firms should not go “many years” without receiving a visit from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Carson McDowell report for the Legal Services Board has recommended.

Criticism of the Solicitors Regulation Authority poured in yesterday in the wake of the report into how it dealt with Axiom Ince, although the notion of more controls on M&A sparked concern.

The SRA “did not take all the steps it could or should have taken” ahead of the collapse of Axiom Ince, the review commissioned by Legal Services Board declared today.

A solicitor who sent “threatening” letters to at least 244 secondary schools, telling them they could be at risk of criminal or civil liability for implementing Covid measures, has been fined £2,500.

A law firm’s co-owner has been struck off for “appalling conduct” that involved violence, bullying and harassment aimed at junior colleagues.

A Surrey law firm that failed to deal with an estate it took on after merging with another practice has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Most people have trust and confidence in legal services, but would like the Solicitors Regulation Authority to do more on their cost, major new research has found.

It is too early to say when prosecutions arising out of the Post Office scandal and Axiom Ince will occur, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s budget is set to soar by a quarter next year in response to a surge in cases referred by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A man convicted of three counts of providing unregulated immigration advice and services has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

The law student who called England footballer Bukayo Saka a ‘monkey’ in an online rant has been handed a conditional discharge after insisting he did not intend to be racist.

A solicitor suspended indefinitely in 2012 for failing to produce accounts after his law firm closed can return to the roll, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has decided.

Licensed conveyancers are targeting schools in an effort to improve recruitment and raise the profile of the profession.