Solicitors Benevolent Association
The charity trustees of the Solicitors Benevolent Association (SBA), registered charity number 208878, have reviewed the charity's governing document in accordance with Charity Commission guidance.



Having taken legal advice, it has been decided to incorporate as a charitable company limited by guarantee, with effect from 30 June 2008 or as soon as practicable thereafter.



Members of the existing charity will become ordinary members of the charitable company and their subscriptions will be to the company. The charity trustees of the existing charity will be the guarantor members of the new company.



Please address any queries or requests for information to the Solicitors Benevolent Association, 1 Jaggard Way, Wandsworth Common, London SW12 8SG.



The annual general meeting of the SBA will take place at 11.30am on 11 June at the Law Society Hall, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL.





Consultation on draft compensation fund rules

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has published a consultation on draft compensation fund rules, which are likely to be introduced in March 2009. The paper can be found here: www.consultations.sra.org.uk.



Currently, the key provisions relating to the compensation fund are to be found within the Solicitors Act 1974. One of the changes to be introduced by the Legal Services Act 2007 (www.sra.org.uk/lsa) is to replace those provisions with enabling provisions which give the Law Society (in practice, the SRA) the power to make rules relating to all aspects of the compensation fund. This means that the new rules must come into effect upon the commencement date (likely to be 1 March 2009) to avoid a hiatus.



The SRA considers it appropriate that any changes to take place now will be confined to ones that are relatively minor and for the benefit of the public. However, the opportunity has been taken to propose that the compensation fund limit should be increased to £2 million in line with minimum level of compulsory indemnity cover.



The deadline for receipt of responses is 6 June 2008, except that, for comments on raising the limit to £2 million, the deadline is extended to 18 July 2008.