Barristers

The Bar Standards Board considers barristers conducting litigation a high-risk activity that could result in significant supervision costs and require a hike in practising certificate fees, it has emerged.

The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have published a protocol for ensuring the latter’s regulatory independence, fulfilling undertakings the pair gave to the Legal Services Board.

Criminal law barristers need to consider significant changes to their business models if they are to remain competitive, the Legal Services Board has argued. It said liberalisation is one of the reasons the government does not need to intervene in the criminal advocacy market.

The Law Society and Bar Council’s call for the government to return large swathes of regulation to them is self-serving and aims to restrict competition, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has claimed.

The Bar Standards Board has rubbished a suggestion from the Solicitors Regulation Authority that it changed a rule to support the Bar Council in its clash with the government over legal aid.

The Bar Standards Board has moved to close a “regulatory anomaly” that would have temporarily seen barristers forced to accept the controversial new legal aid rates set by the government for very high-cost cases (VHCCs).

The Bar Council has accepted that breached the independence of the Bar Standards Board by interfering in controversial changes to the cab-rank rule, it emerged today. The Legal Services Board has however agreed to an informal resolution, having considered a censure.

The Legal Services Board wants to impose lay chairs on the frontline regulators so that they will “do more of what [it] wants”, the Bar Council has claimed. The Bar Standards Board and Law Society have also come out strongly against the proposal.

Barristers are to get a taste of solicitors’ regulatory medicine from January with the launch of a new supervision scheme that will assess how effectively chambers and sole practitioners are managing potential risks such as ineffective governance and inadequate pupillage training.

The Legal Services Board has put obstacles in the way of lawyers trying to practise “well and honestly” rather than improving standards, the chairman of the Bar Council told barristers on Saturday.

The Attorney General has urged barristers not to boycott the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), and warned that if they refuse instructions they have already accepted in protest at the new legal aid rates, the government may “look elsewhere”.

he barristers seeking to have the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) declared unlawful have lost a bid to reduce their costs exposure. Mr Justice Bean refused to amend the protective costs order granted earlier this month by Mr Justice Ouseley.

Discontent is building among the frontline regulators over a Legal Services Board proposal that they should change their internal governance rules to require the chairs of regulatory boards to be lay and not legal professionals.

A High Court judge has accused the Bar Standards Board of “misleading conduct” in the way it handled a disciplinary matter that led to a barrister being disbarred. However, Mr Justice Moses concluded “with reluctance” that despite this, it was not necessary to quash the decision.

The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in the judicial review of the legality of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA). The society said it is intervening in the case “in the best interests of all advocates”.