Barristers

A long-awaited judicial review of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) has been launched by criminal law barristers against the Legal Services Board (LSB).

The government’s decision to drop the idea of price competitive tendering for criminal defence work is definitive proof that there is no link with the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, which is going ahead as planned, the Bar Standards Board said yesterday.

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is to judicially review (JR) a disciplinary tribunal decision ordering that an acquitted barrister who represented herself be paid £27,500 costs, fearing that if it went unchallenged, similar claims could follow.

The Legal Services Board’s initial probe into the independent regulation of barristers uncovered “a number of concerns about the Bar Council’s and the Bar Standards Board’s behaviour at both junior and senior executive as well as board level”, it has emerged.

There is “sufficient consistency of evidence and concern” about the standard of criminal advocacy to warrant the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Legal Services Board concluded today.

The future of the cab-rank rule is still up for debate despite approval of the new Bar Standards Board code of conduct, which includes it, the Legal Services Board has warned. The BSB is also set to raise the issue of a cab-rank rule for solicitors, it has emerged.

Barristers will be allowed to conduct litigation and form associations with non-barristers after the Legal Services Board approved the new Bar Standards Board code of conduct. The revolution will begin in January 2014.

There is a “disappointing and inexplicable” widening of the gap between the views of barristers and complainants when dealing with the Bar Standards Board complaints procedures. The barristers’ regulator has gone backwards in the public’s perception.

The High Court has this week been hearing the first claim for judicial review arising from last year’s high-profile problems with the Bar Standards Board’s tribunals which, if successful, would throw the barristers’ disciplinary regime into disarray.

A barrister has succeeded in having a disciplinary case brought against him by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) struck out, with the argument advanced on behalf of the board dismissed by the judge as “fanciful”. The bid to strike out the case had the pro bono backing of Sir Sydney Kentridge QC.

There is a good standard of legal education and training in England and Wales – “for the most part” – but quality, accessibility and flexibility need to be enhanced “to ensure the system remains fit for the future”, the Legal Education and Training Review research report has concluded.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has pledged to undertake a “radical review of the skills and knowledge required to merit qualification as a solicitor” as part of its response to the findings of the Legal Education and Training Review research report, which was published today.

A free online ‘community resource’ that enables direct access barristers to tender for clients’ work has been launched by the head of a London chambers. CallMyBarrister.com goes live today with a “unique tendering model” that its founder compared to that of a dating website.

The Bar Standards Board is prepared to regulate entities that do not have any barrister owners, it decided last week. The shift comes shortly after the Solicitors Regulation Authority granted an alternative business structure licence to a chambers – the first without a solicitor owner.

The Legal Services Board has launched a formal investigation into whether the Bar Council interfered with the independent regulation of barristers over controversial changes made to the cab-rank rule by the Bar Standards Board.