Solicitor's Handbook 2015

Book excerpt: The Solicitor's Handbook 2015 is a comprehensive yet user-friendly guide to the regulatory maze that governs the conduct of solicitors.This essential handbook covers the Solicitors Regulation Authority's (SRA) Code of Conduct along with the Accounts Rules, financial services regulation, money laundering requirements and alternative business structures (ABS) regulations. It also usefully sets out the extent of the regulator's powers and describes the practical workings of the regulatory and disciplinary processes (including investigations by the SRA and proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT)), as well as the relevant rights of appeal and review.The 2015 edition has been thoroughly updated to take account of all significant regulatory changes that have been introduced since January 2013, including: the ban on referral fees in personal injury cases, which came into force on 1 April 2013, and the SRA's warning notice changes to the law relating to conditional fee agreements and extension of the range of cases in which damages-based agreements can be used new requirements for individuals or entities temporarily practising overseas a relaxation of the requirements for referrals to financial advisers changes to the regulation of consumer credit activities, which has passed from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority the abolition of the Assigned Risks Pool from 1 October 2013 High Court decisions in Fuglers and Andersons regarding the level of fines that the SDT can impose.