Profession Terms of Engagement
NEW TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
FOR BARRISTERS After years of waiting and months of consultation, new terms of work for barristers have been approved and will become effective from January 2013. Barrie Akin, Chairman of the Bar Council’s Contractual Terms Implementation Committee, explains
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or more years than it cares to recall the Bar Council has considered the non-contractual terms on which barristers offer their services to solicitors (set out in Appendix G of the Code of Conduct) to be outdated and unsatisfactory. They not only lacked clarity but also had an adverse effect on the strength and diversity of the Bar. Many barristers have faced unacceptable delays in collecting their fees and have had to write off significant amounts of unpaid fees for want of an effective enforcement process. The problem has been particularly acute for barristers in the early years of practice and it may have contributed to the loss of young talent from the Bar. Devising new terms of work has proved to be a major challenge not least because the arrangements for approval of necessary rule changes have been both complex and time-consuming. But, at long last, we now have a set of contractual terms which are fit for the purposes of the modern Bar and the clients we seek to serve. Following extensive consultations, the BSB applied to the Legal Services Board (LSB) in October 2011 to replace the old terms of work with new contractual terms called “Standard Conditions of Contract for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised
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Persons 2012”(“the New Contractual Terms”). The LSB approved the New Contractual Terms on 27 July 2012 and they will become effective on 31 January 2013. The key changes taking place on that date are: The old terms of work and Withdrawal of Credit Scheme are zz abolished in their entirety. They are replaced in the Code by the New Contractual Terms and an advisory “List of Defaulting Solicitors and other Authorised Persons” (“the Advisory List”). The Cab Rank Rule is amended so that, instead of applying zz to the old terms of work, it will apply to the New Contractual Terms and to any terms which the barrister or his chambers have published as the barrister’s standard terms, so that solicitors or other Authorised Persons (see below) can require a barrister to accept instructions on the New Contractual Terms or on the barrister’s own standard terms. The usual exceptions to the Cab Rank Rule (for example, being professionally embarrassed) will continue to apply. A barrister will have the right (but not the obligation) zz to refuse instructions on credit from solicitors or other Authorised Persons named on the Advisory List, if the barrister so wishes.
December 2012
15
pport ce for ofessions
Profession
Terms of Engagement
Solicitors named in the Withdrawal of Credit List as at January 2013 will be transferred to the Advisory List and complaints can continue to the Bar Council in respect of work performed under the old
terms of work.
The New Contractual Terms are for use by solicitors and other z z “Authorised Persons”, which here refers only to persons or
bodies authorised by the Law Society/SRA under section 18(1)
(a) of the Legal Services Act 2007, such as alternative business structures (ABSs). The New Contractual Terms will not apply to specified z z publicly funded work, where other arrangements are already in place. The lay client is not a party. z z The New Contractual Terms will not operate as default z z
terms. It is accordingly in barristers’ interests for the basis of engagement to be agreed at the outset. Barristers are strongly recommended to have adequate procedures in place by 31 January 2013 to ensure that the basis upon which instructions are accepted is clear. The Bar Council is providing training for barristers and clerks – details appear on the Bar Council website: www.barcouncil.org.uk. In any case where the solicitor does not insist on using the zz
For further information on the new contractual terms, contact Janice Marshall at the Bar Council secretariat – direct line 020 7611 1375, email jmarshall@barcouncil.org.uk. The new Standard Terms and changes to the Code of Conduct can be found on the Bar Council’s website under http://bit.ly/RKu3Jd.
Barrie Akin, Chairman, Contractual Terms Implementation Committee of the General Council of the Bar
The London School of Mediation [LSM] is geared to provide quality training at very competitive rates for the individual up to large groups.
If work is getting you all hot and bothered give our free and confidential helpline a call.
The 2012 and 2013 courses will bring the total of major events to around 100 on which the LSM Mediation faculty have worked together all around the world.
2012/2013 In-house dates LSM’s four or five day in-house courses are flexible and can include evenings and weekends to make up the 40 hours of contact time. Holiday periods and halfterms are available. Main UK public course dates are:
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Readers will, I hope, welcome these revisions to barristers’ terms of engagement as a measured solution to long-standing problems. They should bring benefits for the Bar and for the ultimate consumer of its services - the lay client. z
Do you want to become an accredited Mediator? Looking to create a group of Mediators?
new Standard Contractual Terms, or the barrister’s own published terms, barristers are still free to agree different terms, or to amend the New Contractual Terms (or, if they wish, to have no agreed terms at all). The Advisory List will be similar to the abolished Withdrawal zz of Credit Scheme, except that complaints to the Bar Council can only be made in respect of non-payment of joint tribunal awards, where judgment has been obtained for unpaid fees, or where barristers are unpaid in respect of publicly funded work. Solicitors named in the Withdrawal of Credit List as at 31 January 2013 will be transferred to the Advisory List and complaints can continue to be made to the Bar Council in respect of work performed under the old terms of work.
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December 2012
Dates
Location
Course
Duration
Fee
10th – 14th December
218 Strand London
Mediation Full course
5 days
£2,000 + VAT
7th – 11th January 2013
Manchester
Mediation Full course
5 days
£1,800 + VAT
14th – 18th January 2013
218 Strand London
Mediation Full course
5 days
£2,000 + VAT
4th – 8th March 2013
Taunton [or Cardiff]
Mediation Full course
5 days
£1,600 + VAT
18th – 22nd March 2013
218 Strand London
Mediation Full course
5 days
£2,000 + VAT
For more information, or to book a place: Please contact Bob Moss at the London home of LSM at 218 Strand, London Telephone: 020 7353 3936 or email: bob.moss@218strand.com.
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