Barristers

The Bar has clashed with academics calling for an end to the cab-rank rule over whether the problem of finding lawyers to represent the accused in the recent Delhi rape and murder case is proof of the rule’s continuing value.

The cab-rank rule is ineffective and should be removed from the barristers’ code of conduct – and instead applied as a principle to all providers of legal services, including alternative business structures – a report published today has urged.

Some barristers are worried that boycotting the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates will lead to their committing a criminal offence by practising without authorisation, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association has revealed. Meanwhile, the first wave of judicial training on the scheme has been successfully completed.

Regulators need to speed up their processes for approving alternative business structures, the Office of Fair Trading said today. It also called for further simplification of the complaints system, recommended actions to increase the number of available pupillages and gave cautious support for the move away from title-based regulation.

The six circuits have each called meetings of heads of chambers to discuss whether to boycott the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), it has emerged. The leader of the south-eastern circuit said two aspects of QASA remain “entirely objectionable”.

Completion of the much-anticipated Legal Education and Training Review has been delayed, it has emerged. The academic team compiling the report after 18 months of research and consultation was meant to have delivered it by the end of 2012.

Ten chambers have signed up to the pilot of Barco, the Bar Council’s third-party escrow account that will allow barristers to handle client money. It follows the Financial Services Authority granting regulatory approval for the service under the Payment Services Regulations.

More time to obtain judicial assessments and greater recognition for QCs have emerged as key amendments to the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, leaving some of the most contentious aspects – such as plea-only advocates – unchanged.

The Legal Services Board has no agenda for fundamental reform of the profession and would like to see a new era of co-operation between frontline regulators on matters of common interest, its chair David Edmonds told barristers last week.

Only a handful of the 15,000-plus members of the Bar have disclosed information such as whether they went to public or state schools, in a snub to the chairs of the Bar and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) who had personally requested it.

Introduction of the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) has been delayed, it was announced today. It was meant to start at the end of January, but no new date has now been set as more details are worked out.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has told the regulators it oversees that now is the time for them to prove they can deliver what is expected of them, warning that it will put their promises “to the test”. The LSB said its focus in 2013/14 will be on the performance of the regulators.

The new Bar Council chairman has pledged to work towards proving that the Legal Services Board is not needed. In a stinging attack, Maura McGowan QC warned that “it is not the function of a regulator to seek the total dismantling and restructuring of the system”.

The Bar Standards Board has expressed regret and disappointment at the problems uncovered in the Inns of Court’s administration of disciplinary tribunals – and opened up a turf war over the role of the new tribunals service that is being set up as a result.

Thousands of law firms are set to contribute £1.4m to the Legal Ombudsman after the government confirmed that they will no longer be eligible for two ‘free’ complaints every year. Meanwhile, LeO has not ruled out entertaining complaints by third parties, such as against the opposing party’s lawyer.