SRA responds to LSB warning notice and Law Society urges firms not to delay PII renewal
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has responded to the Legal Services Board (LSB) since they published their warning notice relating to the SRA’s application to alter the Indemnity Insurance Rules by reducing the compulsory minimum level of cover to £500’000. The SRA originally put forward the proposal on the 15th of July 2014 and the […]
Has the lack of Conveyancers hit Crisis levels?
Recently the RICS UK Construction Market Survey Q2 2014 reported that 54% of respondents now say there are insufficient numbers of quantity surveyors available to meet workloads (up from 41% in Q1 2014). Have we hit the same crisis point in the conveyancing industry? To keep up with growth in the conveyancing market, law firms […]
CPD Training – 7 Ways to Increase Profit from Residential Conveyancing
Half-day CPD Training Courses in Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol & Exeter – 09:30-12:45 – Improve the profitability of your conveyancing work and attract more instructions Following on from the hugely successful launch of these CPD seminars, ETSOS, the country’s leading provider of conveyancing and business development tools, and fee improvement specialists Legal Mentors are delighted to take […]
New teams added as Moneypenny continues with strong investment in legal sector
So far in 2014, telephone answering specialist Moneypenny has added five new teams of receptionists dedicated to the needs of legal clients to meet the demands of the growing number of firms using the service. As client numbers and overall call volumes continue to rise across the business, Moneypenny has had an ongoing recruitment programme […]
Letter to the Profession from Lloyd Davies
Dear All, We need your assistance with a fundraising initiative if possible please. One of our Conveyancers, Geraint Aubrey, will be undertaking a herculean challenge this weekend when he will be climbing three massive mountains in the Bernese Alps, including the infamous Mount Eiger. Our very own “Eiger Tiger” will be climbing over 13,000 feet […]
SortRefer bolsters growing business
Online conveyancing portal SortRefer, winner of two industry awards this year for its intermediary conveyancing work, has bolstered its team with the appointment of Annabel Halhead as operations manager. Annabel has spent the last nine years working as operations manager for one of the UK’s largest event management agencies, Zibrant, where she managed over 30 […]
Pickles reveals house building projects to get funding boost
Eric Pickles has announced the first wave of projects that will benefit from a £1 billion scheme to accelerate the provision of over 200,000 new homes across the country. The Communities Secretary published a shortlist of 36 large-scale housing projects in line to receive a share of £850 million of funding to kickstart housebuilding. The […]
Today's Conveyancer Topic of the Month
As the 30th September approaches and firms are thinking about renewal of their Professional Indemnity Insurance we at St Giles are often asked what firms can do to save time in completion of their proposal form and improve their profile. It goes without saying that firms who do low risk work and have no claims […]
Council of Licensed Conveyancers approves appointment of Head of Legal Practice at TCS
Following approval from the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), TCS has announced a major internal appointment with John Jones appointed as Head of Legal Practice. John joined TCS in October 2013 as Compliance Director and was appointed Head of Legal Practice on the 8th July 2014, pending approval from the CLC. He qualified in 1987 […]
DC Law launches training academy to increase conveyancers in the property market
The DC Law Training Academy has been launched by the conveyancing arm of Move with Us to tackle the shortage of conveyancers in the current market which is leading to delays in the house moving process. The academy, which started recruiting in June 2014 is training people who are looking to enter the profession […]
The Real Estate Symposium Dinner on target for 2015 election
Few events have as great an effect on the homebuying public as a general election and with the next one just around the corner this year’s Real Estate Symposium Dinner, facilitated by Search Acumen, will be focussing on what the outcome could mean for property professionals. Whilst some choose to concentrate on the here and […]
Preparing for the PII renewal season – use Lawyer Checker
The deadline for renewing Professional Indemnity Insurance is looming for law firms and naturally the premiums associated with this insurance are a great concern for most law firms, and in particular smaller law firms. Payments for insurance can constitute one of the largest costs to a business aside from salaries. Add to this the fact […]
Employment fraud on the rise
Employment application fraud made up over half of all confirmed frauds recorded to the UK’s fraud prevention service (CIFAS) in the first half of 2014. Job applicants making serious false declarations about anything from employment history and qualifications to criminal records made up 63 per cent of fraud reported to the service. The most common […]
Interview with new CILEx Chief Exec Mandie Lavin
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) has announced that Mandie Lavin is to be appointed as its new Chief Executive, taking over the post on January 1 2015 upon the retirement of Diane Burleigh OBE. In her first interview about her appointment at CILEx, Miss Lavin, currently director of regulation at the General Optical […]
Law Society appoints new Chief Executive
The Law Society has announced the appointment of Catherine Dixon as its new chief executive. Catherine will begin her new role in the coming months and will take over from Desmond Hudson, who will retire at the end of the month. With an impressive career history behind her, including working as head of legal and […]
Searches UK’s Electronic Verification – the way forward for identity checks
Searches UK recognise the difficulties firms can be faced with when conducting identity checks on their clients. That’s why we recommend saving time and money by using our AML electronic identity check to ease the process for your firm and your clients. Customer Due Diligence is required by the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 to help […]
CLC warn Conveyancers of Bogus Firms
The Conveyancing body CLC have sent a warning to Conveyancers regarding the increase of bogus offices set up to clone legal practices, ultimately to steal mortgage loans and client information. Conveyancers were warned not only to be aware of other law firms being cloned, but also of the risk of it happening to them. Fraudsters […]
100 Miles, 100 Years, 1 Day – PSG set off on a journey to Remember
PSG, the quality provider of conveyancing searches and reports for solicitors and conveyancing professionals throughout England and Wales, are delighted to announce their annual charity fundraising event on the 13th September, which will be in aid of the Royal British Legion. 100 Years To mark the start of the UKs special 4 year centenary period, […]
OneSearch Direct Welcomes Lenders’ Approvals of Search Code Regulated Searches
OneSearch Direct, the largest local authority data search company in the UK, has today welcomed the decision by Lloyds Banking Group to recommend legal conveyancing professionals use firms subscribed to the Search Code, regulated by the Property Codes Compliance Board (PCCB), when undertaking personal searches relating to property purchases. “The property search market is a […]
Conveyancing Association respond to Bank of England Inflation Report
The Bank of England has released their quarterly Inflation Report revealing that interest rates are unlikely to rise in the remainder of 2014, however will increase gradually over the next few years. Eddie Goldsmith, Chairman of the Conveyancing Association has commented on the Report in response to the interest rate announcements: “The announcement today suggests […]
