News – Page 132
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News
SRA approves £50-£350 charge scale for advocacy accreditation
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has approved the fees that solicitors will be required to pay for accreditation under the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA). Fees are set for the four accreditation levels and solicitors will have to make payment on registration, on progression and when seeking reaccreditation. To ...
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Ombudsman tries to extend reach as job cuts loom
The Legal Ombudsman will next week set out plans for a voluntary scheme to cover unregulated parts of the legal sector. A discussion paper will be released just days after proposals to cut 10% of its staff were confirmed. The ombudsman told workers this week that 25 roles are being ...
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Next year's PC fees agreed today – full details
Individual solicitors will be shielded from significant fee increases next year but most firms will pay more. The Law Society today agreed that its net funding requirement for 2014 will be £116.8m, an increase from £103.5m the previous year. The funds cover the Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and external bodies ...
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Solicitors Regulation Authority shuts two firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has closed immigration firm Mulberry Finch Limited and Gloucestershire practice Peter Stafford Eales. The SRA said that Mulberry Finch, based in Conduit Street, London, failed to comply with the SRA Principles, the Code of Conduct and Accounts Rules. Peter Stafford Eales, of Turnpike Gate, Gloucestershire, was ...
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SRA’s 2013 diversity data collection system goes live
Firms can now report their workforce diversity data, including sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and gender, through a new online facility on mySRA, the Solicitors Regulation Authority announced today. Collection of this data is a Legal Services Board requirement to promote transparency and diversity in the legal services market, the SRA ...
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SRA set to agree major increase in fining powers
Proposals for significant increases in the fining powers of the Solicitors Regulation Authority are set to be agreed this week. The SRA regulatory risk committee will meet tomorrow to recommend new fining guidelines of between £500 and £50,000 for most firms and individuals. For firms with domestic turnover of more ...
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Direct Line applies to set up law firm through ABS
Britain’s biggest car insurer, Direct Line Group, has applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become an alternative business structure. The insurer wants to create a newly formed and wholly owned law firm, DLG Legal Services, to operate in partnership with existing law firm Parabis. Direct Line Group already provides ...
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Convey Law becomes ABS
Convey Law, which claims to be one of the country’s top 10 residential conveyancing companies, has been granted ABS status by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. The firm’s sales and marketing director Rob Hosier told the Gazette that the firm applied to change its status because it is owned by ...
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Stobart director gains licence for solicitor ABS as ‘final piece in the jigsaw’
Trevor Howarth, legal director of Stobart Barristers, has been granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a company he set up with an employment barrister, he confirmed today. The SRA has licensed One Legal, a company set up by Howarth and employment barrister Tim Edge ...
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Accountants challenged by Society over ‘flawed’ application
The Law Society has condemned the ‘seriously flawed’ application by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW) to become an approved licensing body for the grant of probate, it emerged last week. In a letter to Legal Services Board (LSB) chief executive Chris Kenny, the Society accuses ...
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In-house concern over compliance message
Most legal and compliance departments in Fortune-1000 companies report that systems designed to boost ethical and compliant behaviour in the rest of the business are not being properly communicated. In 63% of companies, internal performance standards in these areas are ‘neither clear nor adequately expressed’. That is the conclusion of ...
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Culture change needed at BSB, says super-regulator
The Bar Standards Board will encounter ‘significant challenges’ in emulating the Solicitors Regulation Authority
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SRA wants compensation fund to cover intervention bill
The SRA has decided not to impose a one-off levy on solicitors to pay for the rising cost of intervening in failed firms, but wants the multimillion-pound bill to fall on the rapidly diminishing compensation fund instead.
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SRA right to raid compensation fund - for now at least
It all goes very quiet at the SRA board meetings when the subject of interventions comes up. Director Richard Collins updated the situation yesterday with the solemnity of a radio announcer reading out the names of kittens who have died that day.
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Society warns against muddling funding for interventions
The Law Society has called for ‘proper transparency’ if regulators are to pay intervention costs out of compensation fund reserves. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed on Wednesday it wants to cover an estimated £7m overspend on interventions this year by using money held in the compensation fund. The SRA says ...
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SRA commits millions to interventions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has already used 10% of its entire annual budget intervening in failed firms in 2013, the organisation revealed today.
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SRA joins attack on ‘poorly informed’ Legal Services Board
The Legal Services Board stands accused of partiality and incompetence in the latest attack from a regulator.
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SRA sticks to its red tape agenda
The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said today it has approved all 10 amendments to the Solicitors Handbook identified in its ‘red tape initiative’.
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Society pours cold water on the SRA’s red-tape bonfire
The Law Society has come to the defence of nearly half the items on a menu of ‘unnecessary’ red tape drawn up by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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PC renewals ‘relatively trouble free’ but 4,500 short
The deadline for solicitors to renew their practising certificates has passed with an estimated 4,500 applications still outstanding, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today.