Everything you need to know about Lawyer Checker and our services.
The Account & Entity Screen has been developed in the wake of growing concern about vendor conveyancer fraud. With lenders tightening panels, fraud has moved along the line in a conveyancing transaction and criminals are stealing identities of real firms, or setting up their own fake firm in order to dupe you into sending money to them. Account & Entity Screen provides you with enhanced risk management in fund transmission.
The SRA issued 22 alerts relating to identity theft in 2012, rising to 102 in 2013 and an unprecedented 187 in 2014.The trend continued throughout 2015, with 183 scam alerts. In the first 6 months of 2016 over 100 alerts have been issued already.
The FCA believes there are 1400 organised crime gangs trying to steal mortgage funds at any given time and they can use the brand of a solicitors/conveyancers firm that is well known to gain an extra badge of legitimacy.
Cases such as Lloyds TSB v Markandan, Purrunsing v A’Court & Co and House Owners Conveyancers Limited & Uddin and Nationwide v Davisons have found solicitors to be in breach of trust.
More recently not using Lawyer Checker has been used in a Letter of Claim to suggest that a conveyancer who has sent funds to a fraudster is negligent.
Vendor Conveyancer Fraud is a real threat to your business, your brand and your clients. Checking the Find a Solicitor list is no longer enough.
Our database has been constantly building for over 5 years from two main sources. The initial source was a bulk import of data from a group of solicitors own data which data back to 2009. During the building of the service we have been to numerous different bodies such as the SRA, Law Society, CML and the City of London police (to name just a few) who have all seen the system and are aware of where we get our data from. No questions have been raised on this point. The other source of information that builds our database is through searches that are carried out by clients. Each search acts like a credit footprint to build up records on both existing and new accounts that we have information for.
The price is £18 +VAT, this can be charged as a disbursement. All payments for Lawyer Checker searches are taken by direct debit which is set up on registration of your account. We invoice at the start of the month for any searches carried out in the previous month. From 1st September 2018, a Minimum Usage Policy will be introduced for all Lawyer Checker account holders which will be £20 + VAT for months where less than this amount is charged in searches. More information on this policy can be found in the Terms and Conditions.
We have been in touch with the Information Commissioners Office to ensure that what we are doing is compliant. We have confirmation that as it would not be possible to identify an individual from the client account information we hold, we do not fall within data protection regulations.
No, the Scottish system completes on cheques therefore Lawyer Checker does not apply. The Account & Entity Screen service is only designed for the jurisdiction of England & Wales.
Yes, the service covers all entities that perform residential conveyancing. This can include building firms and councils.
We recommend that you carry out the search when you get Requisitions on Title and before Exchange of Contracts. There is also an option to update the search for free, immediately before completion by clicking on ‘Search Update’ in the Account section of the website. You can then find the search you want to update and click ‘Perform Update’. The result will be emailed to you in the same timescale as with initial results.
All you need is the client account details of the firm you are sending money to and their name and postcode. You will also need to enter some details about the case concerned.
We would recommend that you ask the other side for the account details in order to carry out this search. Is it worth the risk of not asking for the details a little earlier? Both pilot and new user firms have been able to successfully get account details of the other side earlier in the transaction so that they can perform these checks.
Using the Account and Entity Screen service, you will receive a result immediately with the check of the account against our database. If the result is Infrequent or Unknown, we will send you a further research email within 4 working hours. If you are concerned about the length of time it will take to carry out searches, we have the option for you to integrate your case management system directly to our system. Please contact us and we will send you over the integration pack.
Your results will be sent via email with link to download from site. This will enable you to log in to a secure portal on the website and download your result via PDF.
Using the Account and Entity Screen service, you will immediately receive an email with the result of your check against the database.
If the result is Infrequent or Unknown, you will receive a further email within 4 working hours that has further research into the entity carried out by our team.
Result |
What does this mean? |
Frequent |
Good track record regarding conveyancing transactions within the Lawyer Checker database. |
Infrequent |
A track record has been identified but not all checks have been passed. At this point you will receive further research. |
Unknown |
Unknown means that there is no previous track record that has been identified within the Lawyer Checker database. At this point you will receive further research. We suggest you exercise caution in these circumstances and fully review your file for any risk indicators. |
Any response sent by Lawyer Checker is not a statement by Lawyer Checker that this bank account is safe, suspicious, invalid or unsafe.
Information provided by Lawyer Checker should be used in conjunction with other information on file to consider whether it is appropriate to transfer money to that account.
Approximately 85% of results will come back as Frequent therefore if a result is Infrequent or Unknown, it may present a potential risk and we suggest that you seek to satisfy yourself that you are comfortable with sending money to this account.
Consider all the information we have provided to you in conjunction with other information you have on file. There may be a legitimate reason why the account has presented a potential risk, such as incorrect details, or it may require further investigation.
If you feel that the information you have still presents a risk; we suggest that you pick up the phone to the COLP/COFA at that firm and ask them to confirm their bank details.
If you are still not comfortable sending money to the other side, you may wish to consider discussing the risk with your clients and discharging the mortgage directly or aborting the transaction.
As well as the Initial search that you carry out when you get Requisitions on Title, included in the price is the option to update this search before completion. This allows for additional peace of mind that nothing has changed since your first search.
In order to carry out the update search, please click on ‘Search Update’ in the Account section of the website. You can then find the search you want to update and click ‘Perform Update’.
As well as the Initial search that you carry out when you get Requisitions on Title, included in the price is the option to update this search before completion. This allows for additional peace of mind that nothing has changed since your first search. In order to carry out the update search, please click on ‘Search Update’ in the Account section of the website. You can then find the search you want to update and click ‘Perform Update’.
The Key Contact for the firm, created on registration will be the first Admin User. The Admin User is able to add other users by going to the ‘Account’ section of the website and clicking on ‘Manage Users’.
The user will be sent their unique log-in details to the email address entered. They can then log-in to the system and perform searches.
Please ensure that the email address is entered correctly as it is not possible to change the address once added.
We do have professional indemnity insurance. For more information, please contact us.
To download our Terms and Conditions, please click here.
Our database has been constantly building for over 5 years from two main sources. The initial source was a bulk import of data from a group of solicitors own data which data back to 2009. During the building of the service we have been to numerous different bodies such as the SRA, Law Society, CML and the City of London police (to name just a few) who have all seen the system and are aware of where we get our data from. No questions have been raised on this point.
The other source of information that builds our database is through searches that are carried out by clients. Each search acts like a credit footprint to build up records on both existing and new accounts that we have information for.
Using the Account and Entity Screen service, you will immediately receive an email with the result of your check against the database. If the result is Infrequent or Unknown, you will receive a further email within 4 working hours that has further research into the entity carried out by our team. For sample results of the Account and Entity Screen service, please click here.