July 2017 Newsletter

Fostering innovation

Three quarters of CLC lawyers told us in a survey last year that regulation by the CLC is ‘mostly’ or ‘extremely’ beneficial to their businesses. We are able to support the businesses we regulate as they find new ways to meet changing client expectation. This is because of our insight as the regulator of specialist conveyancing and probate lawyers.

To prepare for the changes that could come with the next wave of legal tech, we’re looking at how we will need to regulate digital legal services, support innovative firms and maintain our high standards of consumer protection. To start the conversation we held a round table event with Legal Futures.

Download the report: Regulating the robots – preparing for a conveyancing revolution

Information for clients about service quality and price

We recently published our Action Plan in response to the report by the Competition and Markets Authority on the legal sector.

The key recommendation from the CMA asks the legal services regulators to ‘deliver a step change in standards of transparency to help consumers (i) understand the price and service they will receive, what redress is available and the regulatory status of their provider and (ii) compare providers’.

We will be consulting you in autumn 2017 on detailed proposals for increasing transparency of price and service quality information for consumers. These will aim to ensure that consumers are able to make well-informed choices of legal service provider. We expect that a market solution will mean that limited regulatory action is needed to implement the CMA’s recommendations.

Find out more

Professional Indemnity Insurance Renewal

If you managed your firm’s insurance renewal this year, we need your feedback on this year’s PII renewal round.

Please take a couple of minutes to complete our short survey.

Feedback on PII renewal

Protecting your clients and your firm from fraud

HM Land Registry (HMLR) are asking for your help. Where you have concerns over the validity of a potential client’s identity or the authenticity of the proposed transaction, HMLR asks that you consider informing them. It might not be that you suspect fraud, but there may be something dubious, which for example may lead you to decide not to represent the person. This information could help HMLR to combat fraud.

You can do this by emailing reportafraud@landregistry.gov.uk or calling the HMLR property fraud line on 0300 006 7030.

Disciplinary Sanctions

We have launched a consultation on sanctions guidance that will help the Adjudication Panel, ensuring consistency and a common view of the appropriate level of sanction in different cases. It will also give stakeholders confidence in the robustness of regulation by the CLC.

The CLC’s proactive approach to helping firms deal with issues before they threaten the client or public interest means that comparatively few cases escalate to a point that means they reach the Panel for imposition of sanctions. Our proposed approach enhances transparency to support consumer confidence and to inform our regulated community and stakeholders better about the rigour of our regulatory approach.

Find out more and have your say

Confirming your place of work

Nearly all Licensed Conveyancers have already completed our questionnaire that asks you to confirm your place of work. This will help make the 2017 licence renewal process smoother than ever, so thank you all!

If you have not had a chance yet, please take a moment to do so now.

Complete the questionnaire

Find out about how to prepare for renewing your individual or firm licence

Qualifying as specialist conveyancing or probate lawyer

The firms we regulate often say how preferable it is to develop talent that is already within the firm compared to recruiting from outside. At lunchtime on 5^th September MoL, one of the new education providers for CLC qualifications, will host a webinar with us to explain the new routes to qualification.

This will be useful for firms thinking of putting staff through the qualification as well as for individuals looking to become a fully-qualified lawyer.

Register for the webinar