From the President

Welcome to the autumn edition of the Hertfordshire Law Society Magazine.

As I wrote earlier in the year, we are certainly blessed with living in interesting times. The impressive effort of the vaccine programme has created the opportunity for something like a return to normality in our working lives, with more time spent in the office and face-to-face meetings with colleagues and clients. Away from work, there have been more possibilities to enjoy music, sporting and artistic events but for many, whether as a result of hiked staycation prices or the logistical intricacies of overseas travel, the summer seemed more restricted than the pre-vaccine days of 2020. The current frustrations at the petrol pumps and pressures on the supermarket shelves can make it hard to embrace the coming winter months without a sense of unease.

Within the criminal justice system, the backlog of cases, which stood at 60,692 according to the Ministry of Justice’s quarterly report in June, continues to stretch prosecutors and defence solicitors. As our President, I. Stephanie Boyce commented, ‘we are seeing the ability to run criminal courts at capacity hit by a lack of judges, court staff, prosecutors and defence lawyers’. This is an issue which is recognised by government but there seems little prospect of significant investment in the near future. The prime minister acknowledged the inadequacies of the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to cases involving violence against women and girls, in his interview on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 5 October 2021. In his view the problem was ‘not just a question of money’ but was ‘to do with the way we handle the evidence and the difficulties which are presented by mobile phones, in particular when the defence is able to seize upon this or that piece of data and use it in court’.

The civil and family justice systems are similarly stretched, with response times for correspondence submitted to the courts typically taking 30 working days to be processed. As I have experienced, sanctions have been issued by Judges on court files which have not been updated due to delays in processing documents which have been submitted in time. This leads to unnecessary (and unchargeable) time being incurred in having orders set aside and further delays in proceedings. I understand that similar frustrations are also experienced by private client practitioners in dealing with HMRC and the probate registries. In these circumstances, and as many of you may have read in a recent report from LawCare (‘Burnt out, sleep deprived and hiding mental illness: lawyers reveal struggles’ - Law Society Gazette 28.09.21), it is not surprising that 69% of lawyers, many at the junior end of the profession, report having experienced mental health issues over the past year. Encouragingly, just over half of this number have felt able to discuss these issues within their firms. Many, however, fearing that, quite understandably, discussing this subject within their firms would have implications for their careers, have kept silent. If you find yourself in this situation, then please consider contacting LawCare (https://www.lawcare.org.uk/).

The other major recent issue is the introduction of the Solicitors Qualification Examination (‘SQE’). Recently introduced by the SRA, the SQE seeks to widen access to the profession by opening up qualification for those who may not have followed the traditional academic route but have instead gained two years of qualifying experience (effectively replacing the training contract requirement) through voluntary work, placements, paralegal work and apprenticeships. The SQE then provides a final assessment for all candidates, regardless of the route that has been taken to qualification, which must be passed in order to qualify.

As to future events, I would encourage members of the Hertfordshire Law Society to attend our Annual General Meeting on 16 November 2021. We confirm whether the meeting will be by video conference or in person nearer the time and look forward to seeing you then. The Council is here to serve you but is also dependent upon practitioners participating in the Council. If you or anyone you know would be interested in joining the Council, please do not hesitate to contact us. As ever, I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Council as we work toward the end of another challenging year.

Neil Johnson

President, Hertfordshire Law Society, 2021