Practising fees soar to cover rising misconduct claims

Claims of solicitor misconduct rocketed by nearly 60 per cent over two years, regulators have revealed as the profession braces itself for increased practising fees to pay for investigations. 

As of last month, claim applications totalled more than £20 million — and additional applications are expected. Moreover, regulators say that they are “experiencing a higher number of interventions” generally, with officials instigating 35 between November and mid-April, compared with 42 in all of 2024-25. As a result, the watchdog is incurring “high levels of storage costs” for seized documents.

All of which means that the authority has said that contributions to the compensation fund for 2026-27 will rise by more than 70 per cent to £120 for individual solicitors — and by an eye-watering 84 per cent to £3,600 for firms that hold client funds. Five years ago the total contribution to the compensation fund was £11.6 million; it is forecast to be £46.3 million for 2026-27. 

City firms bear the brunt of these rises as they are home to hundreds of lawyers. This week, Colin Passmore Chairman and Patrick McCann CEO of the CLLS said that while they recognised that “the SRA faces real and growing pressures”, City lawyers were “being asked to fund the cost of fixing problems [that they] did not create”.