Solicitors

The rules on price transparency are dispelling consumers’ pre-conceptions that legal services are unaffordable and many are now shopping around online, new research has claimed.

Solicitors are to be balloted on changes to the make-up of Law Society council and limits on how long members can sit on it, at a cost of about £30,000, following a divided AGM yesterday.

Solicitors are concerned that some new legal technology they buy does not take into account their professional rules and ethical duties because lawtech firms are “not speaking the same language”.

The Law Society and SRA need to do more to show that they take on board what solicitors have to say about the cost of practising, the Legal Services Board has warned.

A limit of 12 years on the period served by Law Society council members is “essential” to ensure the body “robustly represents the diverse profession of solicitors”, the society’s AGM will hear next week.

Bonuses for managers could be made contingent on improvements in social mobility and the representation of minority ethnic people in law firms, it was suggested yesterday.

The Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme is a “market barrier”, blocking entry to non-solicitor law firms, the Competition and Markets Authority has been told.

One of the oldest legal advice centres in the country has been given a boost by taking advantage of the new path to qualifying as a solicitor by employing six apprentices.

A “manifestly incompetent” partner, whose “neglect and carelessness” led to a shortage in her law firm’s client account of £214,000, has been suspended for 18 months.

Compliance with the rules on price and service transparency is improving but a stubborn minority are facing disciplinary action, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

A solicitor kept money meant for counsel for several months, altered the date of a fee note from his chambers and then pleaded with her boss to hide it from the regulator.

The much-anticipated report from National Trading Standards on estate agents charging referral fees has not recommended banning the practice, calling instead for mandatory disclosure.

The frontline regulators may be forced to fund the Legal Choices website if it is to reach its potential to become a “flagship consumer resource”, the Legal Services Board has hinted.

A leading criminal law solicitor convicted of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman while drunk in Newcastle city centre on New Year’s Eve has been fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

An under-pressure trainee solicitor who billed for work she anticipated doing has not been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, even though she did not eventually do it.