Update to SRA Handbook effective 31st October 2014:
The main legal finance and practice management changes in this latest update are:
- AR20.2 changes have been made following recent the consultation to increase the limit of residual client balances that firms are permitted to dispose of to a charity without the permission of the SRA has been increased from £50 to £500.
- Changes have been made to the AR32 to exempt those firm’s whose where all of the client money received during an accounting period is money held or received from the Legal Aid Agency or in the circumstances set out in rule 19.3 from the requirement to obtain an accountant’s report.
- In addition retaining the existing requirement on all other firms to obtain an accountant’s report if they hold client money but only requiring qualified reports to be delivered to the SRA.
- Changes to the guidance notes to rule 44 and Appendix 5 update the format of the accountant’s report to remove unnecessary information fields.
- A consequential amendment has been made to rule 4.2 to reflect the revised definition of regulated activity for MDPs.
- Changes have been made elsewhere to replace references to the Charities Act 1993 with references to the Charities Act 2011.
- Regulation 6 of the SRA Keeping of the Roll Regulations 2011 has been amended to provide that an enquiry of solicitors without practising certificates will be made at such times as the SRA considers appropriate instead of annually.
