Karen Purdy

PC Renewal is now open

It’s that time of year again… The SRA website is now open for your Practising Certificate renewals.

https://www.sra.org.uk/mysra/updates/practising-certificate-registration-renewals/

Are you concerned that the Compensation Fund contribution for firms will increase from £660 to £2,220?

This is a flat fee, regardless of size of firm, for every firm holding client monies.

As the SRA have the details of each firm’s turnover, presumably introducing a tiered system of fees would not be tricky to do and, to me at least, would seem a fairer system. Do you agree?

I have contacted Alan Kershaw (Chair of the Legal Services Board, who have to approve the fee) and Paul Philip (Chief Executive of the SRA), expressing my concern that the huge increase on a flat fee basis is unfair and will invariably impact much harder on small firms and sole practitioners with lower turnovers.

Join me for a webinar on continuity of your firm

Join me for a live webinar on 21st November 2023 at midday.

It’s part of a series of information for SPs by Estate Research, so you can see Richard Brown about PI insurance and Jon Whittle about running a successful firm in the following two weeks – they are full of useful information and well worth a watch

You can link to the free webinars via the Estate Research learning hub:

https://estateresearchlearninghub.co.uk/

SRA regulation of CILEX – have your say?

There is a consultation paper by the SRA and a further one by CILEX regarding the SRA taking over the regulation of Chartered Legal Executives. The Law Society has set out its concerns and you may wish to have your say?

More information is available here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/regulation/regulation-of-cilex-members

Declaration for Websites by 27th August

The deadline for completion of the declaration for your firm’s website is close of business on 27 August 2021.
The SRA Transparency Rules (‘the Rules’) came into effect on 6 December 2018. Designed to make sure consumers have accurate information and allowing them to make informed choices. Certain work types need to set out details about costs, including setting out the applicable rate of VAT.
The requirement to display the SRA’s digital badge) came into effect on 25 November 2019.

The SRA now require your firm’s Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (‘COLP’) to declare whether you have a website that is compliant with the Rules and displays the SRA’s clickable logo.

https://form.sra.org.uk/s3/Transparency-Declaration