SRA Handbook

Grants which may be made from the Fund

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Version 12 of the Handbook was published on 31/10/2014. For more information, please click 'History' Above

Rule 3: Grants which may be made from the Fund

3.1

The primary object of the Fund is to replace money which a defaulting practitioner or a defaulting practitioner's employee or manager has misappropriated or otherwise failed to account for. The applicant need not necessarily be or have been the defaulting practitioner's client.

3.2

It is also an object of the Fund to provide compensation in respect of the civil liability of a defaulting practitioner or a defaulting practitioner's employee or manager who in accordance with the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules should have had, but did not have, in place a policy of qualifying insurance against which a claim could be made in respect of such civil liability.

3.3

A grant out of the Fund is made wholly at the discretion of the SRA. No person has a right to a grant enforceable at law.

3.4

For any grant to be made out of the Fund (save in respect of a grant made under rule 5), an applicant must satisfy the SRA that:

(a)

he has suffered or is likely to suffer loss in consequence of the dishonesty of a defaulting practitioner or the employee or manager or owner of a defaulting practitioner; or

(b)

he has suffered or is likely to suffer loss and hardship in consequence of a failure to account for money which has come into the hands of a defaulting practitioner or the employee or manager or owner of a defaulting practitioner, which may include the failure by a defaulting practitioner to complete work for which he was paid;

in the course of an activity of a kind which is part of the usual business of a defaulting practitioner and, in the case of a defaulting licensed body, the act or default arose in the course of performance of a regulated activity.

3.5

For the purposes of rule 3.4(b):

(a)

an individual whose dealings with the defaulting practitioner have been in a personal capacity and who has suffered or is likely to suffer loss due to a failure to account shall be deemed to have suffered hardship; and

(b)

a body corporate, or an individual whose dealings with the defaulting practitioner have been in a business capacity and who has suffered or is likely to suffer loss due to a failure to account must provide evidence to satisfy the SRA that it, he or she (the body or individual) has suffered or is likely to suffer hardship.

3.6

A grant may, at the sole discretion of the SRA, be made as an interim measure.