The Law Society

REPORT

The Law Society

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

New research on legal aid means tests proposals

The Law Society have commissioned new research which has shown that a shakeup of legal aid financial eligibility criteria risks being undermined by a failure to account for spiralling inflation in those changes proposed by the Ministry of Justice. The Law Society commissioned Professor Donald Hirsch to follow up his research that the government undertook to review its criteria for who can receive legal aid. The new analysis confirms that the Ministry of Justice’s proposed changes to the means test should lead to more people on low incomes becoming eligible for legal aid.

However, the Ministry of Justice oversights risk partially – and in some cases fully-reversing improvements over time. The most significant omission is the failure to update cost-of-living allowances regularly in line with inflation. The Ministry of Justice proposes using 2019 expenditure benchmarks through to 2026, but with cost-of-living crises these are already out of date (prices are expected to have risen by 20% by 2026).

Single parent families will be disadvantaged compared to other types of households as the proposed changes fail to recognise one-parent families must budget a higher proportion of their income to pay for their children’s needs relative to twoparent families.

Professor Hirsch suggests an additional allowance for single parents, which we support.

More information on the Law Society website at: www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/legal-aid/legal-aid-meanstest-review

PRACTICE NOTES

Undertakings

The Law Society’s Practice Note on Professional Undertakings has been drafted and is now going through our checking and governance process. We hope to be able to publish it in the next few weeks.

NATIONAL LAW SOCIETY NEWS

Council Elections

Preliminary notice of the Law Society’s Council elections 2022 has been issued. We have seats that will fall vacant on the expiry of the terms of office of the current Council members at our AGM (12 October 2022), bar Sussex and Criminal Prosecution Services, where casual vacancies have arisen.

Successful candidates will take office at the conclusion of the AGM on 12 October 2022 except where they are filling those casual vacancies, when they take office immediately. Unless stated otherwise the normal term of office of a Council Member is 4 years. List of seats to be filled include:

Criminal Defence

Criminal Prosecution Services

Employment

Ethnic Minorities

Family

Legal Aid

LGBT+

Private Client

Women Lawyers

Further information at: www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/newsarticles/preliminary-notice-of-council-elections-2022

WELLBEING

Best practice guidance for supporting wellbeing in the workplace

Most solicitors are likely to say they work well under pressure. But when pressure develops into negative stress, it can start to affect performance. The Law Society have developed a guide that contains advice and resources to safeguard and promote employees’ wellbeing in the workplace. It focuses on three themes:

Support

Education and Training

Culture

The guidance includes storyboards with practical steps that you can use to approach wellbeing conversations with employees. It also features case studies from firms including Pinsent Masons, Farrer & Co, Macfarlanes, Freeths, Giles Wilson and Thrive Law.

It's relevant to firms of all sizes, with specific recommendations for different sizes of firm.

This guidance has been designed for solicitors, managers, learning and development, diversity and inclusion and HR professionals.

It applies to lawyers at any stage of their career, as well as business services support staff. The guidance is also transferable across other industry sectors.

Read more at: www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/hr-and-peoplemanagement/supporting-wellbeing-in-the-workplaceguidance-for-best-practice

REGULATORY

Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) & Post Six Year Run Off Cover (PSYROC)

After extensive lobbying from the Law Society and other stakeholders, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced it would seek to defer the closure of SIF for a further year (to the end of September 2023) in what is a major policy reversal. The SRA had previously indicated its preferred option was to close SIF, claiming that the cost of running it was disproportionate to the consumer benefit it delivers in terms of volume and value claims.

The Law Society campaigned strongly for the continuation of SIF, arguing closure would have a detrimental impact on consumers, leaving them unable to seek redress on the rare occasion something goes wrong. We are delighted that the SRA has listened to our concerns and is refraining from deciding on SIF’s future while further work is done on whether consumer protection can be delivered in a more cost-effective way and additional research is carried out on those consumer protection issues raised in consultation responses.

The Law Society is still pushing for the retention of SIF, funded by a levy (as set out in our consultation response), but will engage with the SRA in considering alternative options that could provide an equivalent level of protection.

Beth Quinn

Beth Quinn

Key Account Manager

The Law Society