SRA Standards and Regulations

Identifying beneficial entitlements

The SRA will create a reconciled list or a best list in respect of statutory trust monies held, using the information which it has available. In creating a reconciled list or a best list, any sums of money which are identified within a statutory trust account as being payments on account of fees or unpaid disbursements, or which are equivalent to the costs incurred in a matter to which the...

Interim payments

The SRA may make an interim payment to a beneficiary before the full distribution of funds in a statutory trust account takes place provided that the SRA is satisfied that the payment can be made without prejudicing other claims to those funds.

Residual discretion and fund of last resort

The Fund is a discretionary fund of last resort and no person has a right to a grant enforceable at law. The SRA retains a discretion to refuse to consider an application or to make a grant notwithstanding that the conditions in these rules for making a grant are satisfied. The circumstances in which the residual discretion in rule 2.1 may be exercised include, but are not limited to,...

Eligibility for a grant

A person is eligible to apply for a grant out of the Fund if, at the time the application is made, they are: an individual; a sole trader; partnership, body corporate, unincorporated association or mutual association with an annual turnover or assets of less than £2 million; a charity with annual income net of tax in the most recent financial year of less than £2 million; or a...

Defaulting practitioners

A defaulting practitioner means: a solicitor, an REL or an RSL who at the date of the relevant act or omission was: practising in an authorised body; or practising in a non-commercial body; a solicitor or an REL who at the date of the relevant act or omission: was self-employed and practising in their own name, and not through a trading name or service company; did not employ anyone in...

Grants in respect of statutory trusts

The SRA may make a grant to alleviate a deficiency in a statutory trust held by the SRA. The SRA may make a grant to a person where the money would have been due to that person but for their claim having been extinguished under rule 9.2 of the SRA Intervention Powers (Statutory Trust) Rules 2011 or rule 8.2 of the SRA Statutory Trust Rules.

Conduct of the applicant and contribution to loss

A grant may be refused or reduced to take account of: dishonest, improper or unreasonable conduct by the applicant or anyone acting on their behalf: in the circumstances that gave rise to the application; in relation to the application itself; or failure to pursue the application promptly, co-operatively and in good faith. A grant may be refused or reduced to take account of any act or...

Foreign lawyers

The SRA shall not make a grant in respect of any act or omission of an REL, or the employee of an REL, where such act or omission took place outside the UK, unless the SRA is satisfied that the act or omission was, or was closely connected with, the act or omission of a solicitor or the employee of a solicitor, or that the act or omission was closely connected with the REL's practice in the...

Apportionment and multi-party issues

Where the loss has been sustained as a result of the act or omission of more than one party, the SRA will consider the role of each party in contributing to the applicant's loss in deciding whether to make a grant and, if so, the amount of any grant. In the case of a defaulting licensed body, the SRA will consider the extent to which the loss is attributable to an act or omission which falls...

Application and time limit

An applicant must make an application for a grant in the prescribed form, and within 12 months of the date they first became aware, or should reasonably have become aware, of the loss. The SRA may extend the 12 month period in rule 15.1 if satisfied that there are circumstances which justify the extension of the time limit. The applicant must provide information, documents and evidence...