Legal Executives

The Legal Services Board is to issue statute-backed guidelines to compel legal regulators to follow its vision of how reforms resulting from the Legal Education and Training Review should be implemented.

The Bar Standards Board has pledged to continue with preparations for the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates notwithstanding the judicial review against the scheme launched last week. Meanwhile, it has been criticised for its “mean” position over the costs of the JR.

The Law Society’s bid to regain responsibility for much of the regulation of solicitors has “inadvertently” made the case for completely independent regulation, a leading figure at the Solicitors Regulation Authority has claimed.

A long-awaited judicial review of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) has been launched by criminal law barristers against the Legal Services Board (LSB).

There is “sufficient consistency of evidence and concern” about the standard of criminal advocacy to warrant the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Legal Services Board concluded today.

There is a good standard of legal education and training in England and Wales – “for the most part” – but quality, accessibility and flexibility need to be enhanced “to ensure the system remains fit for the future”, the Legal Education and Training Review research report has concluded.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has pledged to undertake a “radical review of the skills and knowledge required to merit qualification as a solicitor” as part of its response to the findings of the Legal Education and Training Review research report, which was published today.

The prospect of barristers boycotting the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates became almost certain on Saturday after all but one of more than 1,000 members of the South Eastern Circuit said they would refuse to sign up to it.

Criticism of the government’s decision not to regulate will-writing continued yesterday – although the two bodies representing the will-writing community appeared at odd over the prospects of self-regulation succeeding.

A last-minute Law Society bid to delay the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) until after the government’s consultation on price competitive tendering for criminal work was yesterday rejected by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.