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The government has rejected the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s bid to increase the amount it can fine law firms from £2,000 to £250m, Legal Futures can reveal. The SRA had wanted its powers to penalise ‘traditional’ firms to match those it already has for ABSs.

The High Court has thrown out a solicitor’s challenge to the decision to suspend him, which he argued was tainted by racial discrimination. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said that “no scintilla of discrimination of any kind is detectible”.

The possibility of the Law Society and other representative bodies being cut off from any of the money raised by practising fees has been raised by a Legal Services Board call for an “open debate on the cost of regulation”.

It has been gratifying that both the national and legal media have at last caught up with the series of revelations that Legal Futures has been reporting on since March over problems with the Bar’s disciplinary regime. Last week, suddenly, it featured on the Today programme, as well as in The Times, which in turn woke up some legal rags to what has been happening.

I’m feeling a rant coming on, so bear with me. In the two-plus years of this website, I have had cause to complain about the lack of transparency of many of the bodies involved in the regulation of the legal profession. I have ample cause to do so again, unfortunately. First up is the Legal Services Board, whose approach to the publication of papers and to holding open board meetings is frustrating to say the least. Well, yesterday I got the limited satisfaction of knowing that it’s not just me.