# Charities could benefit from unclaimed client funds, says Law Society

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/20/charities-could-benefit-unclaimed-client-funds-says-law-society/
- Published: 2009-02-20T15:14:25+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Law firms in England and Wales could put thousands of pounds of unclaimed client
money to good causes, according to the Law Society Charity.

 

The Charity wants solicitors to donate unclaimed funds to charity rather than let
them ‘gather dust’. An amendment last year to the Solicitors Account Rules allows
balances of £50 or less of unclaimed funds per client to be released to charity 
without approval of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

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An amount of over £50 of a client’s unclaimed funds will have an indemnity for that
amount provided by the Law Society Charity subject to the donor firm having prior
SRA approval to make the donation. All efforts must be made to reimburse the client
first. Where funds have been donated to the Law Society Charity and a client subsequently
requests the funds, the Charity reimburses the firm.

 

Chairman of the Law Society Charity Nigel Dodds said there could be unclaimed funds
for a number of reasons, including having an untraceable beneficiary of an estate,
refunds from disbursements on conveyancing transactions or estimates for work that
are paid by clients but end up costing less than the estimate.

 

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