Professional Practice updates - October 2015

The Society’s Trust and Succession Sub-Committee and Professional Practice Committee both independently identified that important issues of interest and concern to the profession arose out of the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal’s findings in The Law Society of Scotland v David Haddow Campbell (11 March 2013).

An important finding by the Tribunal was that there was no clear authority on the obligation of executors to inform a potential legal rights claimant of his entitlement. Guidance produced by the Trust and Succession Sub-Committee and finalised in consultation with the Professional Practice Committee is now published on the Society’s website. This Guidance is intended to clarify the situation for the future.

From 20 June 2016, the opening hours for making payments via CHAPS and CREST will be extended by one hour and forty minutes.

According to the Bank of England, potential benefits of this change include allowing for high-value transactions to be made later in the business day, for example, conveyancers completing house purchases using CHAPS.

To facilitate transactions, Scottish solicitors who use these systems are encouraged to ask their banks to extend their cut-off times accordingly.

Further details of the change can be found on the Bank of England’s website.