Join Legal News Wales and Cardiff & District Law Society for this FREE online event with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and guest speakers to important proposals laid out in two SRA consultations affecting the legal sector:

1. Options for post six-year run-off insurance cover and the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, and;
2. Changes to the SRA’s fining powers

Event part 1

In this two-part event (run consecutively via the same Zoom link), Juliet Oliver, General Counsel at the SRA will clarify the options for the future of post six-year run-off insurance cover (PSYROC) and the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) – to help solicitors prepare their response to the consultation on these issues (this consultation closes on 15 February 2022)

The PSYROC and SIF consultation paper and its annexes set out a range of options including:

• No future provision of post six-year run-off cover
• Continuing post six-year run-off cover with new funding arrangements, and through different models
• Arranging post six-year run-off cover through insurance on the open market

What to expect

Juliet will be joined by Colin Taylor, Director, Howden Insurance Brokers, who will present the broker’s view and answer your questions during the event.

Event part 2

The second part of our event will explore the proposed changes to the SRA’s fining powers, to help solicitors and law firms respond to its consultation on its approach to financial penalties for law firms and solicitors where they fall short of the expected professional standards.

Unlike for alternative business structures, where The SRA has unlimited fining powers, it can only currently issue fines to traditional law firms, or individual solicitors, of up to £2,000. The consultation proposals are based on the SRA’s analysis of the last 10 years’ worth of enforcement experience.

The SRA’s Fining Powers consultation seeks views on initial proposals to:

• Increase the maximum fine we can issue to £25,000
• Take into account the turnover or income of firms and individuals when setting fines
• Introduce a schedule of 'fixed penalties' of up to £1,500 to enable lesser issues to be dealt with more easily for all concerned

The consultation period for these changes ends on 11 February 2022. For more information on the proposals, click here.

What to expect

Juliet will present the SRA’s proposals for the fining powers consultation and will be joined by a compliance expert (TBA shortly). Both will be able to answer questions from the virtual floor during this part of the event.

LINKS TO THE CONSULTATION AND PROPOSALS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Event format

This event will be hosted in meeting format on Zoom. It’s free to attend and we encourage every law firm to send a representative. (Useful information on our Zoom events can be found below.)

It’s open to all law firms and solicitors in Wales and in England.

Each speaker will have 10-15 minutes on the proposals and what they could mean for law firms, followed by time for questions from attendees.

Want to submit a question in advance?

If you would like to submit a question or concern for our panel host and editor, Emma Waddingham to raise during the event, please email emma@legalnewswales.com

Useful information

We will send you the password within 24 hours of the event. You will receive the event link upon booking but please look out for an email from emma@legalnewswales.com containing the password.

To join the session via the Zoom video conferencing platform, you just need to click on the link we send you around 3 minutes before the session time. You can do this from a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop, but the best functionality and quality of connection is achieved with a laptop or desktop computer, I would advise only using a mobile as a last resort. Zoom is free to use but if you are using it on a mobile phone without connection to wireless internet your mobile service provider may charge you.

When you click on the link you will need to accept pop ups and insert your name and to choose audio by computer if given that choice. When entering your name please enter the name by which you would like us to call you during the session.

Please Note:

When you join the session you will find yourself placed in a waiting room. Please don’t panic, we’ll let you in at the publicised event time.

You will then find yourself on mute. Please remain muted until the host opens the Q&A session. This is to ensure the recording isn’t disrupted. Thank you!

We record all sessions if suitable for sharing - so that as many people as possible can view the event afterwards. You can turn your camera off if you'd prefer to do so. We aim to crop any Q&A sessions out to retain anonymity and confidentiality - or, if appropriate to do so, upload the audio version of the Q&A only.

It’s very quick and easy to join the session and when you do, your camera image will automatically show to myself and the rest of the group and we will be able to hear what you say and any sounds around you. You should see and hear us too. You may communicate by typing things to the whole group and by speaking and you can click on prompts to invite us to go more quickly or more slowly.

If you have any technical difficulties on the day, please text the Editor, Emma Waddingham, on 07769203856.