SOFTWARE: suppliers unable to provide infrastructure in time


The introduction of a new fee contract putting the relationship between barristers and solicitors on a more commercial footing has been delayed again - and will not take place until October 2008 at the earliest, it has emerged.



Negotiations to produce a template contract for privately paid work (other than where there is a conditional fee agreement) have been ongoing for about a decade. It was hoped that the arrangements, which will replace the unpopular withdrawal of credit scheme, could be used from October this year.



According to the Bar Council, the delay was caused because software suppliers could not produce the necessary infrastructure, and the rules could not be changed, in time.



The new arrangements set out terms for the billing and payment of fees, and provide a framework for the resolution of fee disputes by joint tribunals. Barristers will be allowed to sue for the agreed or determined fees, where they remain unpaid.



Geoffrey Vos QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said the current honorarium relationship governing payments, which total hundreds of millions of pounds a year, was now out of date.



He said: 'I do not think there will, in practice, be many cases in which barristers will need to sue, because the contract is carefully designed to avoid such a necessity.'



A Law Society spokeswoman said: 'The Law Society believes it is desirable for solicitors to enter into contracts with barristers when instructing them to carry out work. This will ensure both parties are clear about issues such as fees and timescales. This should reduce the potential for disagreement at a later stage.'



Catherine Baksi