Tag Results
SRA unveils strategy to “educate, engage with and empower” consumers
Monday, 10 October 2011The Solicitors Regulation Authority has launched a new strategy aimed at ensuring the interests of consumers “sit at the heart of the legal services marketplace”. It is also working on a project to determine whether the legal profession is meeting the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing.
Tags: Legal Services Consumer Panel, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Consumer panel, News, Solicitors
Revealed: SRA ABSs clear final hurdle with non-lawyer owners facing convictions check
Friday, 7 October 2011Non-lawyer investors in alternative business structures will have to disclose any previous convictions, even if spent, to pass the ‘fit and proper owner’ test, Legal Futures can reveal. It was the last major hurdle to the full adoption of ABSs.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, News
Controversial advocacy scheme now faces delay, regulators admit
Friday, 7 October 2011The launch of the controversial quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates is likely to be delayed, the Joint Advocacy Group has announced. “Some adjustments” to the scheme are likely “to ensure that there are not unintended consequences”.
Tags: advocacy, bar standards board, Barristers, ILEX Professional Standards, Joint Advocacy Group, QASA, Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, solicitor-advocates, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Barristers, Legal Executives, News, Solicitors
OFR goes live with SRA reassurance that compliance officers are “not sacrifical lambs”
Thursday, 6 October 2011The new compliance officers required under outcomes-focused regulation – which begins today – “will not be sacrificial lambs for the sins of the organisations they work in”, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has stressed.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Don’t comply, don’t die
Wednesday, 5 October 2011Amid the excitement of ABSs going live, in a small way, and the Legal Ombudsman’s first birthday, I have been keeping an eye on the third limb of the Legal Services Board’s initial three priorities for its first three years – ensuring the independence of regulation within those approved regulators where there is also a representative function. With both the Law Society and Bar Council still non-compliant with its rules, it is not a story that reflects very well on the LSB.
Tags: Bar Council, bar standards board, internal governance rules, Law Society, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
Big fall in number of law firms entering assigned risks pool
Tuesday, 4 October 2011Just 53 law firms have failed to find professional indemnity insurance and so entered the assigned risks pool (ARP), provisional figures have shown. At the same stage last year, 409 firms had entered the ARP. Firms still have a month in which they can find secure insurance and backdate it to 1 October.
Tags: assigned risks pool, professional indemnity insurance, qualifying insurers, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Solicitor takes campaign to doors of SRA after winning first round of court battle
Tuesday, 4 October 2011A solicitor will take his campaign against the Solicitors Regulation Authority for shutting down his practice to its front door on Wednesday with a protest outside of its Redditch headquarters. It follows the SRA’s failed attempt to strike out his High Court action seeking damages.
Tags: intervention, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
ARP firms shut down as SRA warns of uninsured practices continuing to operate
Monday, 3 October 2011Almost a quarter of law firms in the assigned risks pool had already decided to close a week before the renewal deadline, while the Solicitors Regulation Authority has flagged up the “serious risk” of other firms practising without insurance.
Tags: assigned risks pool, professional indemnity insurance, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Claims for compensation over solicitor mortgage fraud shoot up
Tuesday, 27 September 2011The number of claims against the Solicitors Compensation Fund arising out of mortgage fraud have shot up by 140%, it has emerged. However, the time lag in claims reaching the fund means the figures disguise a “marked decrease” in mortgage fraud cases, according to the SRA.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, mortgage fraud, Solicitors Compensation Fund, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Bar Council fails governance test again while Law Society goes to the wire
Monday, 26 September 2011The Bar Council is once again not compliant with the rules on ensuring the independence of its regulatory arm, the Legal Services Board has decided – while the Law Society’s compliance remains unresolved. But the Bar Council has been given one more year to get its house in order.
Tags: Association of Costs Lawyers, Bar Council, bar standards board, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, ILEX, Institute of Legal Executives, Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, Law Society, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Barristers, Legal Services Board, News, Solicitors