SRA Update
Firms fall foul of failure to pay ARP premiums
SRA Update Issue 24 – May 2012
More than 30 firms were recently referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) for non-payment of their assigned risk pool (ARP) premiums as part of our stricter approach to enforcement contained in the Financial Protection Strategy we introduced in 2010.
Fifteen of the cases referred resulted in the following sanctions:
- Five solicitors were suspended indefinitely by the SDT.
- Two were suspended for six months.
- Four received fines totalling more than £20,000.
- Four solicitors were reprimanded.
In all cases the solicitors were also required to pay the SRA’s costs of bringing the proceedings. A further case hearing date is due to take place on 17 May with 15 awaiting hearing dates.
See the full news release here It was estimated that there were over £6m worth of unpaid premiums, a cost that is passed on to the profession. We are winding down the ARP which is scheduled to close 1 September 2013 (see In brief: Future financial protection arrangements).