The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1991

Society in relation to the handling of complaints and, at the same time, enhance the image of the profession as one which maintains the highest standards of pro- fessional behaviour and provides a quality service at reasonable cost. Taken in conjunction with the establishment of the office of Legal Ombudsman - an official who will have a role in overseeing the handling of complaints by the Society - this should provide valuable reassurance to the public. The Society will also have a new power to apply to the High Court to suspend the practising certificate of a solicitor who breaches in a serious way any of the regulations made under the Solicitors Acts. There is also a new power under which the Society can intervene in a practice where a solicitor has abandoned his practice, a provision which will give the High Court important new powers to direct banks or other financial institutions to furnish to the Society informa- tion relating to the financial affairs of a practice, a power to make professional indemnity insurance compulsory and a provision which restricts newly admitted solicitors from practising as sole practitioners in the first three years after quali- fication. Moreover, in cases where the Society, having intervened in a practice, applies to the High Court, the Court will have a new general power to make any order in relation to a practice to protect or secure the rights of a client or make an order which the Court feels is in the public interest or in the interest of the profession itself or to assist the Society generally in discharging its functions under the Act. This is an important new general power which will give great flexibility to the Society, acting through the Court, in the future. When one adds to the foregoing, new provisions which substantially increase the penalties for offences under the Act, you have, I think, a compre- hensive package which should lead to a more effective policing of the profession and a more speedy 'neutralising' of transgressors.

There are, however, some important changes in the Bill in relation to education which will provide a framework for the development of the profession in the future. The changes are in the nature of enabling provisions which will require policy decisions to be taken by the Society. These include: • a power to enable joint professional legal education with barristers to be introduced • provisions which will enable the Society to ease the transition arrangements for barristers wishing to become solicitors • a power which will enable the Society to introduce com- pulsory continuing legal education in the future • a provision which reduces the period of apprenticeship to a maximum of three years in all cases. Mention should also be made, in this context, of the provision which will enable the Society to require evidence that a person is a fit and proper person to be admitted as a solicitor. The Society has in the past been inhibited by the absence of such a power to prevent certain persons from being admitted. Competition and the future of the profession There are two other areas of current concern to the profession where the Bill contains a number of important provisions. The first relates to the area of competition. Members of the profession will be aware that this Bill comes fairly closely on the heels of a major report by the Fair Trade Commis- sion on restrictive practices in the legal profession. That report examined the question of ending the legal monopoly held by solicitors on certain areas of legal work and made a number of recommendations. Some of these are now reflected in the Bill. The most important - and contentious - are the provisions which will allow banks and trust corporations to do probate work and banks to do conveyancing. There is also a pro-

Disciplinary As the profession is aware, it is considered in many quarters to be a serious drawback that, under existing law, only the High Court itself can impose a sanction on a solicitor who transgresses. This system is clearly unsatisfactory. The provisions of the Constitution relating to the administration of justice inhibit the granting to the Society itself of a power to strike a solicitor off the Roll or suspend his right to practise. The Bill, however, goes as far as is constitutionally permissible to give the Disciplinary Committee of the High Court the power to impose sanctions. In addition, the Council itself (acting as it, presumably, will through the Registrar's Committee) is given a power to require solicitors to pay up to £1,000 into the Compensation Fund in certain circumstances. The Bill will also enable the President of the High Court to appoint up to five lay persons to be members of the Disciplinary Committee. This is a reform which the Society itself has sought and will help to introduce greater public accountability in relation to the Society's important role in main- taining discipline. The profession itself has no reason to fear this development. The international ex- perience suggests that, frequently, lay members are less severe than the solicitor members of discip- linary tribunals. However, it is important that justice is not only done adequately in practice but is also, of course, seen to be done. Education The Bill does nothing to disturb the control of the Society over admissions policy and, therefore, the Society will remain firmly in charge. The task for the future will be to achieve a balance between, on the one hand, the need to maintain an open policy on admissions to all who are qualified and, on the other hand, ensuring that standards are not lessened and livelihoods threatened through over-supply of new entrants.

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