Regulation

The Law Society’s criminal litigation accreditation scheme is redundant, has no influence on clients and plans for reaccreditation are strongly opposed by the profession, the body representing criminal law solicitors has claimed.

The Bar Standards Board has hit back at criticism on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme of the way in which it conducts disciplinary proceedings against barristers, with claims of “secrecy, incompetence and maladministration”.

Concerns over the standard of will-writing by solicitors are based on limited evidence and the Solicitors Regulation Authority should not have to prove its ability to regulate such work, the Law Society has claimed.

A final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been amended at the last minute to take into account objections raised by the board of the Bar Standards Board.

The Bar Standards Board has successfully defended a challenge to the validity of a disciplinary tribunal, in the first case to be argued over flaws in the system of reappointing tribunal members.

The absence of independent practice rights for chartered legal executives has created a series of “absurdities” and there is no sensible reason to deny those rights, the incoming president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has claimed.

There are more positive messages from the judiciary that they will take part in the new Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, and they are relaxed about the prospect of assessments being used for appeals against conviction, it was claimed last week.

The introduction of a lay majority on the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority moved a step closer yesterday after an advertisement for four new lay members and two solicitor members was published.

The number of solicitors struck off in the year to March dropped by 43%, while the number of negligence claims against solicitors reaching the High Court has also fallen, a flurry of new figures have shown.

Controversial proposals by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to end the requirement on practitioners to refer clients to independent financial advisers risk being misunderstood, a member of the SRA board warned last week.