Law Society notices

Criminal litigation accreditation schemeThe Law Societys criminal litigation accreditation scheme (CLAS) is being developed for launch in stages during this year.Outline of the...Criminal litigation accreditation schemeThe Law Societys criminal litigation accreditation scheme (CLAS) is being developed for launch in stages during this year.Outline of the schemeTwo membership stages: stage 1 police station and magistrates court accreditation; stage 2 supervisor accreditation.Stage 1 accreditation is in two parts: part 1 police station qualification; part 2 magistrates courts qualification.To ensure that solicitors are able to meet the new criteria for duty solicitor work introduced by Legal Services Commission(LSC) under the Access to Justice Act 1999, it has been decided to make stage 1 the development priority at this time.

The duty solicitor arrangements come into force on 2 April 2001 and will require all solicitors conducting duty solicitor work for LSC to pass various assessments of competence.

The LSC stopped accepting any new applications for registration as a duty solicitor after 1 February 2001, although the processing of applications received before 1 February will continue.

The stage 1 assessments will be provided by organisations specifically authorised by the Law Society.

The following organisations have been approved to provide the magistrates court qualification assessments: Cardiff University Centre for Professional Legal Studies, tel: 029 2087 6948, e-mail: DaviesDC@cardiff.ac.uk; Central Law Training, tel: 0121 362 7703,e-mail: jbutlin@centlaw.com; Datalaw, tel: 0151 227 4439, e-mail: datalaw@hotmail.com.It is anticipated that the following organisations will offer the police station qualification: Cardiff University Centre for Professional Legal Studies; Central Law Training (both contact details as above).

Other organisations may apply for approval to run the police station assessments and should e-mail michael.barstow@lawsociety.org.uk for details.Solicitors must pass the assessments and make an application to the Law Society for the award of the appropriate qualification.Transitional arrangements for stage 1To ensure the continuity of the duty solicitor scheme it has been agreed that all currently registered duty solicitors will be passported into the new scheme either as full stage 1 members of CLAS or as part qualified (existing duty solicitors registered for either police station or magistrates court work only).

The passporting exercise is scheduled to begin in March 2001 and will be carried out by the Law Society using data provided by the LSC regional offices.

This process will be automatic for all solicitors who were included on the LSC lists at 1 February 2001.Solicitors passported into the scheme will be subject tore-accreditation.

Details will be sent out in the spring.

Re-accreditation is likely to start in November 2001 and continue on a rolling programme.Future arrangements for stage 1The detail of new arrangements for the assessment of the police station and magistrates court qualifications will be contained in an information pack currently being prepared.

Solicitors who wish to apply to the LSC for inclusion on a regional duty solicitor scheme after 1 February 2001 will be required to successfully complete the various assessments for both parts 1 and 2 and hold stage 1 membership of CLAS.Solicitors who were qualified as police station representatives as trainees and are able to demonstrate continued experience of police station work may apply to the Law Society for the award of the police station qualification.Additional information Solicitors requiring additional information should contact the Law Societys information services, telephone: 0870 606 2555, fax: 01527 500018 or write to the team secretary, Professional Accreditation, The Law Society, Redditch, B98 0TD or use DX 19114 REDDITCH or e-mail: panels@lawsociety.org.ukThe full information pack will also be published on the Law Societys Web site http://www.lawsociety.org.uk