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GAZETTE
N
W
DECEMBER 1992
One Profession
Quality issue dominates Conference of England and
Wales Law Society
Mark Sheldon, President, Law Society,
England and Wales.
T h e issue of quality was to the fore
at the An n u al Co n f e r e n ce of the
Law Society of E n g l a nd a nd Wales
held in B i r m i n g h am at the e nd of
Oc t o b er which h a d as its t h eme
" O n e P r o f e s s i o n ". Addressing
delegates, the President of the
Society,
Mark Sheldon,
said " m y
t h eme of o ne profession is clearly no
cover for tolerating t h o se w h o let us
d own. Solicitors w h o d e f a u lt are the
extreme examples," he said. " T h o s e
w h o give rise to repeated negligence
claims or wh o se t r e a tme nt of clients
leads to repeated c omp l a i n ts let us
d own as well. They tarnish o ur
r e p u t a t i on a nd they cost us d e a r ."
" We have stark choices a h e ad of
us," said
Mark Sheldon.
" We can
either h o pe t h at t ho se w h o let us
d own will, u n d er pressure f r om the
ma r k e t, me nd or b e nd - improve or
leave practice, b ut they may cost us
a lot a l o ng the way. Or we can
ourselves set s t a n d a r ds of quality by
which it wo u ld be r e a s o n a b le to
allow clients to j u d ge the s t a n d a rd
of wo rk they s h o u ld be entitled to
expect. P u t t h at way - there really
is n o choice. T h e role of a
professional b o dy in setting
s t a n d a r ds can n o longer simply be
c o n f i n ed to the d e f i n i t i on of ethical
c o n d u ct rules". Mr. Sh e l d on
expressed his c o n c e rn t h at " if we d o
not take action s o o n, ou t s i de bodies
will take this task into their own
h a n d s, a process which could indeed
leave us f r a gme n t ed a nd d i v i d e d ."
•
Tackling the cost of
default
At the Conference it emerged that
there were differing views in the
profession in England a nd Wales
about how the cost of default should
be tackled. The Law Society of
England a nd Wales began a
consultative process of its members
last July when it circulated a
Consultation Paper to members. By
the time of the conference, some
1,400 responses h ad been received, 890
of which came f r om sole practitioners.
It emerged that the majority of sole
practitioners was against most of the
fraud prevention measures suggested
in the paper by the Law Society while
the rest of the profession saw merits
in them. The He ad of
Commu n i c a t i o ns of the Law Society
of England a nd Wales,
Walter
Merrick,
suggested that many sole
practitioners might have responded the
way they did because they h ad
interpreted the Consultation Paper as
some sort of witchhunt against them.
An overwhelming majority of sole
practitioners had answered 'yes' to the
key question asking whether sole
practice should be allowed to continue
in its present f o rm without restriction.
Overall, the ma j o r i ty of r e s p o n d e n ts
including sole practitioners favoured
c a p p i ng the C omp e n s a t i on F u nd for
claims by institutions, while the
b a l a n ce of the profession a p p e a r ed
to be against a c ap on private
claims. In general, said Mr. Me r r i c k,
the inconclusive o u t c ome of the
c o n s u l t a t i on me a nt t h at the Law
Society of E n g l a nd a n d Wales was
facing s ome difficult decisions in the
c om i ng mo n t h s.
•
What the clients want
T h e UK Legal Om b u d s m a n,
Michael
Barnes,
w h o was a p p o i n t ed u n d er
the C o u r ts a nd Legal Services Act,
1990 to consider c omp l a i n ts a b o ut
barristers, solicitors a n d licensed
conveyancers said t h at inefficiency
was the mo st c o mm o n charge
levelled against lawyers. He said he
was receiving grievances at the rate
of 1,500 a year. Ap p r o x ima t e ly 750
of these were taken u p a nd in two
thirds of the cases, the c omp l a i n ts
centred a r o u nd a charge of
inefficiency. Mr. Barnes said clients
wanted i n f o r ma t i on f r om lawyers on
how the work being d o ne for t h em
was progressing, regular reviews of
their cases, a nd the active
involvement of the practitioner. They
also wa n t ed to k n ow exactly where
they s t ood on costs. Simply q u o t i ng
h o u r ly rates to clients was not g o od
e n o u g h. "You c a n n ot a nd mu st not
leave the client to d o the a r i t hme t i c ,"
he told the conference.
•
Legal Aid Changes
Inevitable - Lord
Chancellor
Just as the dispute on criminal legal
aid fees in Ireland was e n d i n g, the
UK Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay,
told the Co n f e r e n ce of the Law
Society of En g l a nd a nd Wales t h at
legal aid could not c o n t i n ue to take
an ever increasing share of public
expenditure. T h e Lord Ch a n c e l l or
said t h at s p e n d i ng on the legal aid
services in the UK would exceed £1
billion d u r i ng this financial year, a nd
If the current trends c o n t i n u e d, it
would be n e a r i ng £2 billion by the
mi d d le of the decade.
T h e Lord Ch a n c e l l or p r o p o s ed t h at
p e op le s h o u ld have to pay towards
the cost of their legal help in as far
as they c o u ld reasonably a f f o rd to.
He said t h at it was also clear to h im
t h at controls over the grant of
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