A round-up of the week’s news
8 February
The Legal Aid Agency has embarked on a major information-gathering exercise to get to the bottom of 17,000 cases on its IT systems that have been ‘inactive’ for the past year. The agency has 170,000 live cases on its systems at any given time, but has narrowed its focus to cases where payments on account have been made but no ‘significant activity’ has been recorded for 12 months.
7 February
Consumer research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to help justify assuming oversight of legal executives is flawed, the Law Society warned in a letter to the regulator days before a board meeting that discussed the controversial proposal.
In National Apprenticeship Week, a flurry of firms stated their commitment to recruiting legal apprentices as the profession continues to embrace alternative routes to the law. There are now estimated to be around 2,000 apprentices in the country working towards becoming a solicitor.
A Yorkshire firm announced that staff will each receive a £4,000 bonus after a successful trading year. Ison Harrison, which became 100% employee-owned in 2022, posted turnover of more than £22m in 2023 – an annual increase of 16%.
Baroness Hale revealed her ‘true colours’ by voting against the Rwanda Bill, according to former leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, who called for the ‘politicised’ Supreme Court to be emasculated. Rees-Mogg’s comments coincided with the launch of the right-wing splinter group Popular Conservatism. The MP for North East Somerset demanded that the court’s powers be circumscribed so it is no longer the ‘final arbiter of the law’.
6 February
A will-writing and probate specialist has become the latest legal business to secure private equity investment – with immediate plans to seek acquisitions in the market. Derby-based Right Legal Group announced that it secured the undisclosed cash injection from Vespa Capital, an investor targeting businesses in the lower mid-market.
Landmark sentencing guidance for blackmail, kidnap and false imprisonment offences will flag to judges that black and Asian offenders receive tougher sentences than white offenders, under proposals put forward by the Sentencing Council.
5 February
International firm Dechert reached a multi-million-pound settlement without admitting liability with airline tycoon Farhad Azima over his claims regarding the firm’s alleged involvement in hacking his emails. The settlement is for £3m plus Azima’s ‘reasonable costs, which have yet to be agreed or determined by the court’, Dechert said.
A solicitor who admitted taking thousands of pounds from elderly clients while acting as their power of attorney was jailed. Alison Haley Griffiths (pictured), 55, who pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of position, was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court to 24 months’ imprisonment.
The vexed question of how to protect the public without unfairly burdening regulated solicitors is at the centre of a review of consumer protection announced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The review follows renewed debate over the future of the compensation fund following the revelation that more than £60m was missing from the client account of failed firm Axiom Ince. The profession is likely to have to cover losses suffered by former clients.
Lawyers hauled before the Post Office Inquiry were fiercely criticised as part of victims’ summing up of the handling of Horizon fraud prosecutions. Representatives of subpostmasters took turns to criticise the conduct of external and in-house lawyers who worked on their cases.
