Regulation

The current arrangements for the regulation of barristers are “relatively cost-efficient” and there is no need to make the Bar Standards Board (BSB) fully independent, the incoming chairman of the Bar Council has said.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has set out plans for a centralised assessment test, the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, for all those wanting to join the profession. The new exam would not be introduced before the 2018/19 academic year.

Setting up a new panel of criminal defence advocates could confuse the public, CILEx Regulation has warned. It said the legal regulators should control standards and quality.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to launch a research project on the “competence” of personal injury lawyers, it has emerged. The research will examine the “decisions and processes implemented by firms to respond to legislative and market changes”.

Two personal injury solicitors have been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breaches of the referral fee ban. One was rebuked and fined £2,000 – the most the regulator could levy without a referral to a disciplinary tribunal – while the other was simply rebuked.

The leaders of the Solicitors Regulation Authority have made it clear that they believe it would be better for the public and the profession if they had complete independence from the Law Society. They were responding to the Treasury’s announcement earlier this week on independent regulation.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has fined or reprimanded the directors of a law firm for using legal aid disbursement payments to keep the practice afloat, after the economic recession and a merger put it under financial pressure. But it emerged during the hearing at the end of September that if payments owing to the firm had been made promptly, it would have been well within its bank overdraft.

The number of students on the Bar Professional Training Course from Asian backgrounds has increased to the point where it almost equals the number of white students, new figures have revealed. The figures have also highlighted the tiny number of students with lower second degrees who secure a pupillage.

The government should return regulation to the legal profession’s representative bodies, rather than introduce full separation, the Law Society has said in response to yesterday’s surprise announcement from the Treasury that separation is now on the cards. The move is set to open up the fault lines in the current regulatory set-up created by the 2007 Legal Services Act.

The Legal Services Board has joined solicitors in questioning government plans to introduce additional regulation of criminal advocacy. The Bar Council supported the proposals by the Ministry of Justice.