The Gazette 1994

GAZETTE

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1994

Board of Directors which is presided over by the Bátonnier. While management decisions will be taken by the Board of Directors, the day-to-day running of the CARPA is undertaken by a permanent staff. The staff processes the lodgements of client funds made to the CARPA account, monitors the state of each client account, undertakes the investments of funds and provides various services to practising avocats such as photo-copying facilities, electronic mail, assistance with accounts etc. The handling of client funds is done through a bank account opened in the name of CARPA. Each avocat is authorised to sign cheques on the account. As mentioned earlier, his authority for doing so is by delegation from the Bátonnier so that in the event of misconduct, the authority can be withdrawn. In practice, each avocat is holder of a sub-account at the bank where the CARPA account is held. In order to ensure accurate monitoring of transactions, an individual code is attributed to each separate matter on behalf of each client. The bank handling the CARPA account is required to monitor very strictly each client account. All monies lodged and withdrawn on a matter must carry the corresponding code. Hence, if for any reason, an account shows a debit balance, CARPA is immediately informed by the bank and must forthwith require that the avocat rectify the situation. The French Bar is justly proud of the fact that the profession maintains an impeccable reputation for the handling of client funds. Indeed, it is a mark of the effectiveness of the scheme that having been started by a small group of Parisian avocats on a voluntary basis in 1957, it ultimately became mandatory for all members of the profession by a law of 25 July, 1985. CARPA Services to the Profession and the Public CARPA offers an extensive range of services to the profession and the Handling of Client Funds

public. They are entirely self-financed from the proceeds of invested client funds. Typically, a CARPA will provide grants for students to enable them undertake their law studies, finance continuing education for practising avocats, arrange health insurance and retirement schemes for its members, provide information to the public as to their legal rights and also financially assist legal aid schemes (the CARPA remunerating the young avocats involved). In addition, CARPA meets its overheads from its income and usually pays a proportion of its revenues to the local Bar Council as a contribution to the latter's operating costs. It can be readily seen that CARPA thus relieves the local Bar Council of many of the more costly services which it would otherwise have to provide from its own resources. It is interesting to note that the cost of a practising certificate is relatively low compared with England or Ireland. In Toulouse, France's fourth largest city, the current charge is 4,400 francs. Jean-Henri Farné, the local Bátonnier, estimates that if CARPA did not exist, the cost of the practising certificate could be as much as five times that amount if the avocats were to provide from their own resources the range of services currently offered through CARPA funding. French avocats are generally very satisfied with the CARPA system in so far as the benefits to the profession are concerned. However, there are frequent complaints of delays in the processing of lodgements, typically from 8 to 15 days. Big firms like Clifford Chance which handle large sums for corporate clients consider that such delays impact on their own image vis-a-vis the client as well as that of the profession as a whole. Gérard Honig, partner in Paris-based Honig Buffat Mettetal, a medium sized business law firm, evokes the same difficulty, mentioning that often, sums have to be paid directly from client to client although he points out that in a debtor-creditor relationship the practice runs the risk of a seizure on the debtor's bank account since a direct payment would provide the creditor with the identity of the The Practitioner 's View

account to be garnished.

Bátonnier Farné considers that the CARPA has been an outstanding success which he attributes to the fact that it is a simple, uncomplicated scheme. He believes that without the CARPA, it is doubtful that the profession would be able to offer the same range of services in a large provincial city like Toulouse. He also points out that some of the CARPA facilities available to the local avocats have proved particularly invaluable such as PAIE AVOCAT, a computerised service for salary administration which relieves avocats of much of the paperwork involved in dealing with staff remuneration. Jean- Pierre Dujfour of Clifford Chance (Paris) mentions the benefits of AVOCATEL, a minitel online link between law firms enabling avocats to correspond by electronic mail and which also provides link-ups to the courts and to government registries. The value of such a system for the eleven thousand practitioners in Paris is considerable. AVOCATEL also operates in other French cities. a sole practitioner in the Breton town of Quimper, points out that the CARPA guarantee against misuse of client funds gives the public a sense of security and enables the profession to maintain an excellent reputation, a factor which benefits all firms, regardless of size. He also considers that the funding which CARPA provides for the local Bar relieves the avocats of a financial burden which would otherwise be particularly onerous for the sole practitioner. Alain Coroller-Bequet, A CARPA Scheme for the Law Society? As the Law Society continues to examine ways and means of minimising the burden of claims on the Compensation Fund, it may find positive elements in the CARPA scheme of the French avocats. The approach to the handling of client funds is obviously very different from that which prevails in Ireland but the CARPA scheme has proved that it works for both the profession and the (Continued on page 271)

268