Articles
SRA Waivers: Innovation or Jumping the Gun?September 16, 2018Much has been written recently about the SRA granting waivers to firms ahead of changes to the rules - but is it important? Here Jayne Willetts, Director of Infolegal, argues that it is on two levels. First, as a regulator, should the SRA be permitted to ignore its own rules and secondly, does this more tolerant approach foreshadowing changes due to come into force early next year mean that there are more opportunities for firms and individual solicitors to develop new business models?Read More
Lexcel 6.1 Takes EffectAugust 19, 2018The Law Society has now unveiled its latest version of its flagship Lexcel standard. Although only an interim updating version of the standard, rather than the more radical overhaul of the standard for which many had hoped, Lexcel 6.1 is currently optional at new and continuing assessments, and will be mandatory from November 2018.Read More
SRA Reforms – Towards the New HandbookJuly 20, 2018This article looks at three issues that arise from the SRA’s programme of de-regulation - indemnity insurance, waivers and costs information. Whilst they may not seem significant, their impact could not be greater for most firms when the new Handbook, currently anticipated to be in force next April, comes into force.Read More
Property Fraud Cases – DreamvarJune 14, 2018We feature this month the familiar topic of who should bear the liability for property fraud when a vendor firm has been induced to sell a property by a client who turns out to be an imposter. The problem is of course that the purchaser's representatives will have forwarded the completion monies in good faith to the supposed vendor's representatives, but they will then have been transferred to the fraudster and are highly unlikely ever to be recovered.Read More
Looking at the SRA Reforms AheadMay 17, 2018It now seems a long time since the SRA issued a series of consultations in 2016 and 2017 on the new “future proofed” Handbook. The current plan is to bring the new Handbook into effect in April 2019 - although there have been suggestions that further delays might arise.Read More
Making Staff Data-Security AwareMarch 16, 2018Data security is very much in the news at present - if only because of the focus that has been brought to bear upon it by the General Data Protection Regulation. Whilst the advice from the cybersecurity sector is to put in place firewalls and software solutions to prevent attacks from taking place, often it is the people in a business that are the weakest link.Read More
Getting to Grips with GDPRFebruary 11, 2018There can be little doubt that one of the major compliance issue of this year will be the implementation of the GDPR on 25th May. However, although there is no shortage of reading material providing an overview of the new provisions, so far there has been precious little advising what this will all actually mean for the legal sector and what you will actually need to do in order to achieve compliance.Read More
Whose File is it Anyway?January 14, 2018The issue of who owns the solicitor's file and whether the client or their new representatives are entitled to demand that it be handed over to them is one that arises from time to time, especially when the client has become unhappy about the services that have been provided to date or after the matter has completed.Read More
Checking Sources of Funds in Financial TransactionsDecember 18, 2017In compliance terms, the main story of the year was without doubt the implementation of the revised Money Laundering Regulations in June.Read More
The Criminal Finances Act 2017October 22, 2017The Criminal Finances Act introduces new powers to seize suspected criminal property even where there has been no conviction and also introduces new offences for professional advisers such as lawyers and accountants in relation to the facilitation of tax evasion.Read More