The new Justice Minister, Shabana Mahmood, has said she is pledging to make public funding a priority and to smooth relations with the Legal Aid Agency. The Legal Aid Minister, Heidi Alexander admitted that the legal aid system was on life support and it would be a...
The SRA has been given the go ahead by the Legal Services Board (LSB) to increase the compensation fund contribution for 2024/25 by 270%. This decision has been made partly to cover the costs of the Axiom Ince intervention. In addition to the increased contributions,...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the biggest and most talked about technologies of the last 10 years. It has the ability to completely change how businesses operate, automate, make decisions and become more efficient. The legal sector, notorious for its...
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates solicitors in England and Wales. According to its latest annual report the SRA spent £16.5m on disciplinary processes in 2021/22, a £1.5m increase from 2019/20 (pre-covid). It should be noted that the SRA financial...
In the digital age, fraud is showing no sign of slowing and is becoming an ever-present threat across all industries and sectors, in particular law firms that handle highly sensitive information on a daily basis. During these times, cybercriminal activity is becoming...
A recent study from the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index found that the average digital maturity of law firms in England and Wales was 43%. Furthermore only 5% of law firms scored higher than 80%. This will perhaps come as a shock too many considering the pandemic...
The SRA has increased their fining power Last year the SRA increased its fining powers from £2,000 to £25,000 to enable them to impose larger fines on legal firms that fail to implement adequate Anti Money Laundering training and systems. Before this change any fines...
A recent survey conducted by HSBC between May – July 2022 has found that 50% of respondents plan to reduce their office space within the next three years. It is important to note that this survey was conducted before the latest economic issues developed. This is an...
What is the indemnity fund? The Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) was established in 1987 to provide compulsory professional indemnity cover to all solicitor firms in private practice in England and Wales. With the agreement of The Law Society of England and Wales, the...
Recent statistics have revealed that the legal sector has defied predictions of a slowdown. Data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that turnover for the legal sector for July was £3.7bn, an 8.3% increase from July 2021 (£3.4bn) and a 2.2% increase...
Recent sector research has found that the biggest challenge facing in-house legal teams is managing risk whilst prioritising large volumes of work. It is important to note that this was a global survey formed of 169 legal, risk and compliance professionals. Over 20%...
Towards the end of 2021 the SRA announced that they were proposing an increase in fining powers from £2,000 to £25,000. In addition, the regulator announced the development of a new fast track system for ‘fixed penalties’ for low-level offenses. It was recently...