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News

Mortgage fraud. Cases heard in the High Court in the last few months show that firms are still making life easy for fraudsters by not spotting obvious signs. The 'duped' firm can pay a high price for even one fraudulent transaction but there will frequently be more than one. The fraudsters have not gone away. For in-house training or support, contact PNCR legal.

Expert evidence. Acting as an expert witness on professional indemnity insurance, Tim Prior gave a firm the information it needed to persuade the SRA to drop the most serious allegations being pursued before the SDT.

ABSs. The SRA becomes a licensing authority for Alternative Business Structures on 23 December 2011 and will process applications from licensable bodies from 3 January 2012. Co-op Legal Services will be at the front of the queue with 300 staff ready and willing to compete with you. PNCR Legal is already working with one law firm in this area. Whether you see it as a threat or an opportunity, doing nothing is the worst option.

Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII). In 2011 19 insurers shared £255.7m premium income, an ostensible increase of £42.7m on the declared premium in 2010, although it is likely that the actual increase was more modest. Three new Qualifying Insurers were amongst 12 winners, while the 11 losers included 4 insurers writing no business. Lemma was the biggest insurer to exit having written £6.2m in 2010. Top 5: 1)XL - £46.7m, 2)Hannover £32m, 3)QBE £34.4m, 4)Travelers £29.7m, 5) Zurich £24m

Winners: XL up £18.4m. QBE up £15.9m, Barbican up £8.4m, Alpha up £6.7m. The three new entrants wrote £14m between them. Losers: Chartis down £15.8m, Lemma down £6.2m, Travelers down £6.1m, Zurich down £3.4m, RSA down £2m.

Reserved legal activities. Regulators are concerned about the lack of protection for consumers in relation to unregulated legal activities. In its first year the Legal Ombudsman received 75,000 complaints many of which fell outside its jurisdiction. Common examples included unregulated will writing and probate services. The SRA has called for all legal services to be regulated. The confused regulatory position can be seen as a major failing of the Legal Services Act 2007.

Publication of complaints. From April 2012 the Legal Ombudsman will publish the names of lawyers and law firms involved in patterns of complaints. That is not controversial. More so is the decision to collate and publish quarterly the names of all lawyers and law firms involved in complaints which are resolved by the ombudsman (even if the complaint is not part of a pattern). The threat to your reputation could be significant.

Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS). Tim Prior of PNCR Legal has been a member of the CQS Assessment Panel since it first sat in April 2011. Panel members are independent of the Law Society and form part of the independent review process for firms seeking accreditation. He became risk adviser to the scheme in July 2011. Over 800 firms have been accredited since February 2011.

Online compliance. In May 2011 Tim Prior became an external author for LexisNexis on risk and compliance issues in readiness for the launch of their new service in Autumn 2011. Clck Here

Compliance officer roles. All firms should be giving serious consideration to the appointment of their COLPs and COFAs, the details of which need to be notified to the SRA by 31 March 2012 on forms which should become available from January 2012.

The appointments you make and the operational changes required need careful thought. For more on compliance, click here. Let us know if we can assist.

Events

16 May 2012 - Tim Prior will be leading a Law Society Masterclass in London on file management.

24-25 April 2012 - Tim Prior and Sheila Wells will be speaking at the IRM Professional Development Forum at the Midland Hotel, Manchester.

28 February 2012 - Tim Prior will be speaking at the CLT conference on property negligence and fraud.

2 December 2011 - Tim Prior spoke to members of the Institute of Credit Management in London on the subject of mortgage fraud. Click here for a copy of the slides

30 November 2011 - Paul Bergin, Director of Dextera Global will be speaking to the IRM Legal Risk group. His topic will be employee fraud, how employees can be targeted by organised crime and warning signs to watch out for. Tim chairs the IRM Legal Risk group.

24 November 2011 - Tim gave an informative talk to local solicitors on the subject of Outcomes Focused Regulation and the new SRA Handbook at a Law Society Risk and Compliance Service seminar at East Midlands airport conference centre.

10 November 2011 - Tim was a speaker at the first Practice Management conference held by Devon and Somerset Law Society at Exeter racecourse. The event generated tremendous feedback. Click here for Tim's slides.