Solicitors

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is pushing on with plans to cut the upper limit for Compensation Fund awards from £2m to £500,000, while modifying other proposals to reduce the cost of the scheme.

A solicitor has been struck off after nearly 40 years in practice after admitting that the difficulties of relying on payment from criminal legal aid work overwhelmed him.

A law firm should not have refused to hand over £330,000 from the sale of a house in South London for nearly four years despite having “reasonable grounds for suspicion” over the seller’s identity.

A network for freelance solicitors that is “ready to launch immediately” cannot get off the ground because it cannot secure professional indemnity insurance, it has emerged.

A trainee solicitor who admitted multiple offences, including rape, committed in quick succession against two women in July 2019 was jailed last week for 14 years.

A partner who admitted acting recklessly in failing to warn investor clients about the risks involved in off-plan property development schemes has been fined £17,500 by a disciplinary tribunal.

Reforms to the regulation of legal services proposed by an independent review would lead to a “massively uncertain and costly system”, the president of the Law Society has said.

An experienced solicitor has been fined £20,000 for misconduct after being duped into accepting that a woman was who she said she was because he did not require documentary proof.

A “disgraceful” solicitor disappeared with over £415,000 of client money and apparently went travelling to Malaysia, warning his trainee solicitor that “there are going to be some angry clients”.

A solicitor who acted where there was a real conflict of interest and paid out almost £6m from buyer clients before they had obtained any security in the flats they were hoping to buy, has been fined.

Law firms assume – wrongly – that their professional indemnity insurance covers them if they are investigated or prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, research has warned.

A solicitor who was duped into employing a bogus solicitor, who then facilitated a £1.2m conveyancing fraud, has been struck off. The fee-earner stole the identity of a genuine solicitor.

Alan Blacker, also known as Lord Harley and one of the most talked-about solicitors of recent years, has today received a suspended prison sentence for benefit fraud.

A solicitor who used £80,000 of client money to refurbish her offices – and paid out another £165,000 of client money after falling victim to two email scams – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will take into account the short period of time law firms have had to comply if they fall foul of today’s new anti-money laundering rules, it has said.