I understand the National Law Society will be issuing detailed feedback from the conference and once received I will circulate this.

 

Of particular note on day one were the presentations from Charles Plant of the SRA and Elizabeth France of the Legal Ombudsman.

 

Charles Plant made it clear they would be ready for the 6^th October 2011 deadline for the introduction of ABS’ and the SRA were committed to a move over to Outcome Based Regulation.  There were suggestions of earlier audits to avoid interventions.  It was suggested firms who suffer a substantial decrease in income should either be notifying the SRA who will in future be looking at the viability of a practice.  He was indicating the new form of regulation would not be ‘light touch’ but would be modern and proportionate but doubtless we will have to wait and see.

 

I would remind members of the roadshow being run by the National Law Society in Exeter on the 22^nd June to discuss the above.  If you wish to book please click on the link below

Elizabeth France gave an enlightening presentation on the formation of the Legal Ombudsman which will come into effect on the 6^th October 2010 and which will take over the investigation and resolution of complaints against solicitors.  It will be staffed by approximately 300 staff with 8 Ombudsman and we were assured they would have the capacity to deal with all complaints.  The Head Ombudsman (is this is the correct term) will be an Adam Sampson.  The message was very much we should be aware there will not be an adversarial approach but proportionate dispute resolution.  The Ombudsman will be able to make compensation awards and their decision is final. As  from October there will be an onus on us to signpost clients to the Legal Ombudsman.  The issue of fees was raised and a response received that there would be a flat fee of £400 only where 2 or more ‘chargeable’ cases arose in a year.
 

One area where feedback from the professional was being sought by the Legal Ombudsman was the issue of publication of decisions and this matter is open I understand for consultation.

The second day of the conference was to see how Local Law Societies such as ours could engage with the National Law Society.  A variety of issues were raised.   The National Law Society did indicate they are looking for individuals to sit on Law Society Committees and I have attached a document produced should any of you be interested. 

There was further discussion about the services Local Law Societies provide for their members and this varied depending on the size and financial resource of each society but there were a number of positive ideas which I will bringing to the attention of your committee next month for consideration.   Some of these included having an event each year to celebrate the admission of newly qualified solicitors within a society and fundraising activities.  One suggestion with regard to responding to the many consultation papers currently issued is for the National Law Society to provide a summary of consultations to make it easier for practitioners to respond.  This suggestion has been taken on board and we will await the feedback to see if this can be achieved.