UK Law Articles
These articles are reproduced from old newspapers. Whether you are looking for old articles about the Lord Chancellor's Department, or trying to find stories on solicitors, judges or courts, the law teacher article database is here to help you. You will find these articles useful for writing your law essays, law dissertations and law coursework.
Lord Chancellor's Department
Press Notice
26 February 1997
EMPLOYED SOLICITORS GRANTED RIGHTS OF AUDIENCE IN THE HIGHER COURTS
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, and the four senior designated judges have approved the Law Society's application for rights of audience in the higher courts for employed solicitors, subject to certain restrictions.
Lord Mackay has written to the President of the Law Society, Tony Girling, on behalf of all five decision makers.
This decision concludes the approval given to the Law Society's application for rights of audience in the higher courts which was first submitted to the Lord Chancellor in 1992. The application was made in accordance with the procedures laid down in the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. The Lord Chancellor and the designated Judges approved that part of the application which related to solicitors in private practice in December 1993.
Since then, they have considered further the issue of employed solicitors and have received further advice from the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct, and from the Director General of Fair Trading. The application was amended by the Law Society in July 1995 to restrict the types of cases in which an employed solicitor could appear as the sole or senior advocate (see Notes for Editors - 7).
Employed solicitors, like solicitors in private practice, will have to apply individually to the Law Society for rights of audience in the higher courts. The training and qualification regulations, as well as the relevant codes of conduct, form part of the application which has been approved by the Lord Chancellor and the designated judges. As well as practical experience, employed solicitors will need to have passed relevant tests and have completed a training course.
There will be some restrictions on when employed solicitors will be entitled to appear in court. Employed solicitors will not be able to appear as advocates on their own in the following situations:
for the prosecution in criminal proceedings which have been committed for trial to the Crown Court (but this restriction does not include Plea and Directions Hearings and other preliminary proceedings); in civil proceedings in the higher courts in any hearing which is intended to dispose in whole, or in part of, the merits of the case; and for local authorities in care proceedings.
These restrictions have been imposed in part by the Law Society's amended application, and in part by the Lord Chancellor and the designated Judges in approving the application.
All solicitors employed by Government departments who exercise a right of audience in the higher courts will have a right of access to the Attorney General, thus ensuring a further safeguard.
The Lord Chancellor commented: "I am very pleased with this decision, which marks a further widening of legal representatives who can appear before the courts. The senior judges and I are satisfied that employed solicitors have in place sufficient qualification and training regulations, and codes of conduct, to ensure that the proper and efficient administration of justice will be maintained. While the decision will take time to make an impact, it marks a continuation of the sensible policies of reform which were initiated in the Court and Legal Services Act 1990".
Notes to Editors
1. The four 'designated' judges are: (a) Lord Bingham of Cornhill - The Lord Chief Justice; (b) Lord Woolf of Barnes - The Master of the Rolls; (c) Sir Stephen Brown - The President of the Family Division; (d) Sir Richard Scott - The Vice-Chancellor
Background
2. The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 established a new framework for the granting of rights of audience and the right to conduct litigation. The statutory objective of the Act is:
"The development of legal services in England and Wales ... by making provision for new or better ways of providing such services and a wider choice of person providing them, while maintaining the proper and efficient administration of justice."
As a general principle, the Act requires that applications for new advocacy and litigation rights must be decided by reference to whether the applicant body, in this case the Law Society, has established the appropriate qualification and training arrangements and has appropriate rules of conduct, including a non- discrimination rule, which it is likely to enforce. The Law Society was the first professional body to apply for new advocacy rights for its members.
3. The Law Society formally applied to the Lord Chancellor to be able to grant rights of audience for employed solicitors on 12November 1992. Amendments to that application were made in February and May 1993. Under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, the Lord Chancellor is required to obtain the advice of his Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC) and (as to competition aspects) the Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT).
4. ACLEC advised in July 1993 that the Law Society's qualification and arrangements were appropriate and that the application could be approved in relation to solicitors in private practice. However, ACLEC felt that the rules of conduct did not include sufficient safeguards for employed solicitors in criminal proceedings and recommended that the Courts and Legal Services Act should be amended to control the exercise of any extended advocacy rights in criminal proceedings by lawyers in the Crown Prosecution Service and the Government Legal Service.
5. The DGFT advised in July 1993 that approval of the application would lower entry barriers to the market and widen choice for the consumer and could therefore be approved in its entirety.
6. In December 1993 the Lord Chancellor and the designated judges approved that part of the application relating to solicitors in private practice. In view of the fact that ACLEC's advice had gone outside its remit (in suggesting that the Act be amended), the Lord Chancellor and the judges remitted that part of the application relating to employed solicitors back to ACLEC for the Committee to look again at the issue within the existing framework of the Act and to complete their advice on employed solicitors in criminal proceedings.
7. However, ACLEC considered that the Committee would need to consider afresh the whole issue of rights of audience for employed solicitors once the Committee had been reconstituted in April 1994. On 21 June 1995 the Committee provided their further advice. The Committee was split 9:8. The majority advice was that the application should not be approved as the rules of conduct would not provide sufficient safeguards to be consistent with the proper and efficient administration of justice. The minority advised that, subject to certain modifications, the application should be approved. On 13 July 1995 the Law Society made a supplementary application which contained further amendments. The amendments, which greatly restricted the cases where an employed solicitor could appear in court on behalf of the prosecution in criminal proceedings or on behalf of a respondent in judicial review proceedings, took account of points made by the minority in their advice.
8. On 31 August 1995 the DGFT advised that these further amendments would have no adverse effect on competition. On 10 October 1995 the Law Society provided representations on the advice.
9. There are now 438 solicitors in private practice who have rights of audience in the higher courts, as a result of the 1993 decision. A further 170 solicitors are in the process of applying for them.
10. Prior to the 1993 decision, solicitors only had full rights of audience in the lower courts (magistrates' courts and the county courts). Apart from in a few limited circumstances, rights of audience in the higher courts were restricted to barristers in private practice.
11. The decision is the unanimous decision of the Lord Chancellor and the designated judges. It concludes the application made by the Law Society in respect of rights of audience for solicitors in the higher courts under the procedure laid down in the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.
12. The separate but related issue of employed barristers, which raises different considerations, will now be considered further. Employed barristers currently have very restricted rights of audience in the higher courts and this decision does not alter their rights in any way.
