Barristers

The Bar Standards Board is operating an “antiquated and wholly inadequate” paper-based continuing professional development system that is diverting resources away from serious misconduct matters, its board was told last week.

The 5% Solution Group – a barrister lobby looking to reduce the level of practising certificate fee – is to hold off calling an extraordinary general meeting of the Bar Council pending a meeting with Bar chairman Peter Lodder QC.

Students taking an aptitude test designed to weed out those likely to fail the Bar training course could be given a once-only opportunity to pass, it has emerged, after members of the Bar Standards Board raised questions about the policy of allowing unlimited attempts.

Some solicitors are putting barristers under “increasing pressure” to enter into referral fee arrangements, while others are trying to take “improper advantage” of advocates by abusing the ‘one case, one fee’ rules in criminal work, the Bar Council has complained.

The Bar Council has begun work on providing central client account facilities for barristers, it emerged last night as incoming chairman Michael Todd QC set out his stall for 2012 with a call for barristers to invest in their future.

The Bar Standards Board is set to remove two key restrictions that fetter more members of the public instructing barristers directly, after a record number of barristers took the public access training course this year.

The Bar Council is urging barristers to embrace public access. But, says John Binks, the reality of doing the work will come as a rude shock to many barristers. It can be done, but they will need to revisit the way they do business, including the chambers model.

Barristers are facing a 5% increase in the cost of practising as the Bar Council looks to raise an extra £365,000 to balance its budget next year. That means QCs in private practice would pay a core fee of £1,026, while those at the employed Bar would pay £728.

An aptitude test that indicates whether Bar students will pass their exams is “the best single predictor of course outcomes”, a pilot study has concluded. The Bar Standards Board is pressing ahead with plans to introduce the test formally in autumn 2012.

Barristers need to grasp the opportunities offered by direct access for the public, which will also help them bid for legal aid contracts, the chairman of the Bar Council has urged. Peter Lodder QC said the “critical importance” of public access is underlined by the proposed legal aid cuts.

The government has set out how it intends to ban referral fees in personal injury, but has included a get-out if the payment is made “as consideration for the provision of services”. Its draft rules also allow the Lord Chancellor to ban referral fees in other areas of practice.

The legal education and training review, commissioned by the three main frontline legal regulators in November 2010, may not produce its final report until some point in 2013, it has emerged. Meanwhile, the academic body contracted to provide research has shut down, but the work will continue.

The controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) will now go live in April 2012, it emerged last week. We can also reveal that contingency plans have been drawn up for the judiciary not playing its expected role in QASA.

The launch of the controversial quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates is likely to be delayed, the Joint Advocacy Group has announced. “Some adjustments” to the scheme are likely “to ensure that there are not unintended consequences”.

The Bar Standards Board’s move into entity regulation raises questions about the future of the Bar as a separate branch of the legal profession and could even lead to a solicitor heading the Bar, a former Bar Council chairman will warn this evening.