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A High Court judge has overturned a Legal Ombudsman decision that a barrister had not earned his fee, but separately upheld a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal decision to hand out a record fine.

Two City solicitors struck off following a rare private prosecution before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal have won a High Court battle that gives them a second chance to fight the allegations against them.

The number of solicitors found to be dishonest and struck off rose in the past year, even though there has been a sharp fall in the number of applications made to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, according to its annual report.

The “popular myth” that conveyancing is low value is not borne out by the evidence, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found. But property work is continuing to cause the regulator problems, with stamp duty land tax schemes and ‘right to buy’ negligence litigation firmly on its radar.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is confident of its interpretation of the referral fee ban but simply cannot give the level of clarity over which business models will comply that many want, the official leading the work said yesterday.