News releases
New regulatory measures introduced by SRA
9 October 2007
A new system of concluding some investigations by agreement with solicitors has been introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
For the first time, the written agreements will give details of an investigation and its findings. This could include solicitors agreeing to come off the roll permanently or for specified periods of time. Solicitors will be expected to admit their failings and promise to improve their performance. Agreements will normally be made public.
Antony Townsend, chief executive of the SRA, said:
"These agreements are an innovation that will help to provide prompt, transparent and efficient regulation. For the SRA and the public, they will provide a robust outcome to our investigation, with solicitors agreeing to our sanctions. They should also help to contain our costs. For solicitors they will mean a more timely and generally less costly process than going to the Tribunal.
"Agreements will only be made where we can be certain that it is in the public interest and the solicitor involved admits their wrongdoing and is prepared to put things right. It will be for the SRA to decide whether an agreement is appropriate and we will firmly resist pressure to use them if a solicitor is contesting our decision or doesn't accept our sanction. The most serious cases will, of course, continue to go to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal."
Examples of possible agreements are
- where there has been a system failure within a firm, rather than a culpable individual failure, and it is clear that the problem has been addressed,
- where a failure in supervision within a firm has contributed to misconduct by an individual who is no longer in the firm,
- where solicitors have failed to spot conflicts of interest but agree to better procedures with training and verification.