Until March 2004 solicitors did not generally have to take specific, formal steps to identify their clients. Now they must, if they are involved in financial or real estate transactions. Anyone giving tax advice must also do so. This is a requirement laid down by Parliament. Anyone who fails to comply risks criminal prosecution.
This can lead to some peculiar situations. For example, you may have acted for a member of a group of companies for a long time. From time to time someone you have always dealt with explains that there has been an internal reorganisation and the client is now a different group member. In those circumstances you have to go through the identification process all over again. This can be hard to explain to the client.
The process is time-consuming, both for the client and for the advisor. Company search agents are now coming up with electronic reports, drawing on publicly available sources. They are offering these reports on individuals as well as companies. The aim is to show who you are and where you live.
Several thoughts spring to mind:
• There is a cost to the whole process, which is a barrier to the provision of legal services. Presumably, however, this is thought to be a price worth paying in the public interest.
• Perhaps we should each bear in mind how much information about us is publicly available.
• Search agencies are—justly—doing well out of the process.
