SRA Update
In brief
SRA Update Issue 24 – May 2012
Revocation: Are you at risk?
The revocation process for the remaining members of the regulated community who have failed to renew will commence the week commencing 8 May. The consequences of revocation are serious.
LETR survey: Help and you could win an Amazon Kindle!
The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) research team is seeking views from the legal profession and those with an interest in how the future regulation of legal education and training should develop in England and Wales, following the changes introduced by the Legal Services Act 2007.
This is your chance to give us your comments and information. More information about the review is available here: www.letr.org.uk.
One lucky respondent will win an Amazon Kindle e-book reader.
Deadline for responses is 16 August 2012.
Take the survey
Invitation to comment on LETR equality, diversity and social mobility paper
The LETR research team has just published a paper on equality, diversity and social mobility and are asking for feedback by 17.00 on 2 July.
Download the paper (PDF x pages xK)
Proposal to regulate will writing and estate administration
We have registered our interest in becoming the regulator for this currently unreserved legal activity, following the Legal Services Board's proposal to ask the Lord Chancellor to agree to the plans. Research we carried out last year found that one in four wills assessed failed because they were deemed to be of insufficient quality.
See our press release
QLTR
Qualified Laywers Transfer Regulations (QLTR) applicants for whom time is running out to complete the mandatory work experience element of the new Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme, can now opt for an assessment option to pass both the OSCE (Objective Structure Clinical Examination) and TLST (Technical Legal Skills Test) run by Kaplan in London every six months. We will be writing to all holders of QLTR certificates of eligibility with outstanding work experience requirements to make them aware of this change.
The QLTR closed to new applications on 31 August 2010 and those taking part have until 31 August 2013 to meet the SRA's requirements.
Third edition of the Handbook
We have now published the third edition of the Handbook which came into force on 18 April 2012. This latest publication features some key changes including a Glossary of terms setting out their definitions, and updates to the Code of Conduct, Accounts Rules and Practice Framework Rules 2011, amongst others. We urge you to use this updated version for guidance—the Handbook and sections of it, are free to view and download.
Future financial protection arrangements
We have published the feedback we received to the consultation on our Financial Protection Policy which ran until 17 January and looked at the changes proposed as part of the April 2011 Policy Statement. You can read the comments and our responses to them.
Your responsibilities regarding mis-sold PPI
We have issued a reminder about your responsibilities when dealing with clients who need help with claiming for mis-sold personal protection insurance (PPI) in the light of increased awareness of some companies offering help when it may not be needed and a campaign launched by Moneysaving expert.com and Which? Magazine.
Both the Ministry of Justice and Financial Ombudsman Service have provided consumers with detailed information on how to make a claim, while claims management companies and solicitors firms have offered their services. But solicitors need to be clear that their actions adhere to the Principles and Outcomes set out in the SRA Handbook. More information is available at www.sra.org.uk/PPI.