Solicitors Accounts Manual- 11th edition

Description: BOOK REVIEW

SOLICITORS’ ACCOUNTS MANUAL

11th EDITION

Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Law Society

ISBN: 978-1-85328-808-1

www.law.society.org.uk

IT’S YOUR MONEY- SO WHAT’S YOUR SOLICITOR ALLOWED TO DO WITH IT?

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

If you are a solicitor, you no doubt have a copy already of the Solicitors Accounts Manual -100 pages of accountancy detail for lawyers! This however, is the 11th edition for 2009 and, as a summary of the professional requirements in relation to the handling of client money, it incorporates a number of changes, including all those made to the rules since publication of the tenth edition, up to31 March 2009.

Of particular interest is Part A which sets out clearly the principles on which the rules are based followed by interpretation, generally, of individual terms within the accountancy rules.

First of all, a solicitor must comply with the requirements of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2007 also published by the Law Society.

Specifically, pertaining to the Accounts Rules, a solicitor must, amongst other things,

• Keep other people’s money separate from money belonging to the solicitor or the practice • Use each client’s money for that client’s matters only

• Establish and maintain proper accounting systems

• Account for interest on other people’s money in accordance with the rules

• Deliver annual account’s reports as required by the rules…

• …and so on, including admonitions about keeping other people’s money safely in a bank or building society account identifiable as a client account.

Intriguingly, with reference to accountants, the Preface points out that the Legal Services Act 2007 (The Act) has introduced a mandatory whistleblowing duty for reporting accountants, reflected in an amended rule 38. Previously this rule provided for the right of reporting accounts to whistleblow, but imposed no duty to do so.

So is there a duty to whistleblow?

Note- it’s now all one word. Think, if you will, of the implications and ramifications of that in the interesting times we live in.

Members of the public as well as other practitioners within the legal profession will also find themselves enlightened by some precise definitions under the heading ‘Interpretation’ of certain vague terms: ‘without delay’ means, for example, ‘in normal circumstances, either on the day of receipt or on the next working day.’

So now you know. We now seek a precise definition of what ‘in due course’ means. But we digress.

Suffice to say, the Solicitors’ Accounts Rules now reflect the introduction of LDPs and firm-based regulation and applies to the following: sole practitioners, partnerships, companies, LLPs, practices with non-solicitor lawyers and managers and practices with up to 25% of managers who are not legally qualified.

In addition, the rules are applicable to individual managers and employees of those practices and to in-house lawyers. The Preface explains much about your money and what the solicitor can do with it, and the Law Society does just that with this regularly updated work.

ISBN: 978-1-85328-8-8-1

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