Council rejects Sayer proposals

An attempt by former Law Society president Robert Sayer to limit the complaints-handling role of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) and decrease the practising certificate fee was rejected by the Society's ruling council last week.Mr Sayer has introduced three motions which are to be debated at the Society's annual general meeting next month.

They would remove from the OSS responsibility for heavy negligence-style claims and less serious inadequate professional service claims, and reduce the practising certificate fee from 495 to 400.But the motions were effectively defeated by an additional motion introduced by Vice-President David McIntosh, which said Mr Sayer's motions disregarded the Law Society's statutory responsibilities to the profession.If passed by the AGM, Mr Sayer's motions would only be actionable by the council at the risk of judicial review.Law Society President Michael Napier said: 'These motions are a distraction from the excellent progress made by reforms this year to restore the Law Society's stability.

In disregarding public interest - which is a major part of the council's responsibility - these motions fly in the face of reality, so it is not surprising that they were soundly rejected by council and will not succeed.'The blocking clause was passed by 48 votes, with seven against and one abstention.In other business, the council gave an extra non-constituency seat to the Local Government Group and the Sole Practitioners Group - having rejected the idea at its last meeting.

But a decision by the council membership committee not to recommend a seat for the African, Caribbean and Asian Lawyers Group caused a heated debate.While the group's 52 members would not necessarily be enough to merit a seat, council maintained efforts should be made to increase ethnic minority representation.

Mr Napier asked the committee to produce a paper on the issue by July.Jeremy Fleming