Tag Results
Essential reading from the SRA
Friday, 28 May 2010The Solicitors Regulation Authority began a series of road shows in London this week to introduce the new approach to regulation of solicitors following the implementation of the Legal Services Act 2007. The event was very well attended, reflecting a high level of interest in the profession.
Tags: outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Solicitors
Trust me, I’m a regulator
Thursday, 27 May 2010Uncertainty in how rules and regulations are interpreted is the very stuff of being a lawyer, but solicitors may well be less keen on this when the uncertain rules and regulations are the ones which govern how they operate. But as Solicitors Regulation Authority chief executive Antony Townsend admitted earlier this week, that is what outcomes-focused regulation will introduce to their world.
Tags: outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
Ten of the best as SRA unveils four new core duties for slimmed-down code of conduct
Tuesday, 25 May 2010There are to be four extra core professional duties when the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) unveils a slimmed-down Code of Conduct later this week, it has emerged. The draft 40-page code – which will form part of an online Solicitors Handbook bringing together all of the SRA’s regulatory regime – is at the heart of next year’s move to outcomes-focused regulation.
Tags: Alternative business structures, financial management, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Latest news, Solicitors
SRA given green light to fine solicitors
Tuesday, 11 May 2010The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will be able to formally rebuke solicitors and fine them up to £2,000 from next month, it has been confirmed. However, the potential conflict between the civil standard of proof that will be applied in such cases and the criminal standard used by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal – which will hear appeals against SRA decisions – has not yet been resolved and is likely to require further work.
Tags: Legal Services Board, Solicitors, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Legal Services Board, Solicitors
Minority report
Thursday, 6 May 2010The Solicitors Regulation Authority has learnt the hard way about how sensitive issues around black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers can be. Readers may recall the almighty row that erupted in 2008 over the disproportionate number of BME solicitors who face regulatory sanctions. So one imagines SRA staff and the new board have trodden with huge care in the face of opposition from the Black Solicitors Network to the proposed reforms of the assigned risks pool, which the SRA’s own equality impact assessment indicates will adversely impact BME firms.
Tags: assigned risks pool, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
SRA approves ARP reforms despite threat of legal action from minority group
Tuesday, 4 May 2010The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority today pushed ahead with reforms to the assigned risks pool (ARP) despite the threat of a legal challenge from the Black Solicitors Network. March’s “in principle” decision to close the ARP to new firms and halve the length of time firms can spend in it to a year was confirmed after the board considered a full equality impact assessment which concluded that both proposals had a potential adverse impact on race equality.
Tags: assigned risks pool, professional indemnity insurance, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, Latest news, Solicitors, Uncategorized
SRA unveils roadmap to outcomes-focused regulation, but Law Society has “concerns”
Friday, 30 April 2010The Solicitors Regulation Authority today recognised that it has “much to do” to build the confidence of law firms in their regulator if it is to succeed in delivering outcomes-focused regulation (OFR). The launch today of its consultation on how OFR will work also came with words of caution from the Law Society about the implementation timetable, cost and regulatory burden that may result.
Tags: Law Society, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Accountants “failing in solicitor duties”
Monday, 19 April 2010Many accountants are failing both to qualify their reports and to blow the whistle on solicitors’ wrongdoing, the chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales’ solicitors group said last week. Only 35% of accountants’ reports are qualified – despite the intricate nature of the rules – while hardly any accountants have blown the whistle a year after the rules were changed to require it.
Tags: Solicitors Accounts Rules, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Accounts rules, Latest news
ARP firms “fail to pay £5.8m of premiums”
Thursday, 15 April 2010Law firms currently in the assigned risk pool (ARP) have paid just 22% of their insurance premiums, while insurers are rapidly increasing the reserve for claims these firms may cause, it has emerged. The 262 firms currently in the ARP were liable for £7.5 million in premiums – both record figures – of which just £1.7 million has been paid.
Tags: assigned risks pool, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, Latest news, Solicitors
Law Society urges Quinn firms to hold nerve after broker warns over fresh cover
Thursday, 15 April 2010The Law Society has told the 2,911 law firms which have their professional indemnity insurance with Quinn that they do not need to take action at the moment, despite a warning that they may have to seek fresh cover within four weeks of the company’s provisional administration being confirmed.
Tags: professional indemnity insurance, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, Latest news, Solicitors