Solicitors escape OFT action

RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES: Law Society is proceeding with deregulation - but bar drags its feet

The Law Society was given higher marks than the bar last week in the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) updated report on competition in professions, with the OFT pledging to pursue the bar over its continuing ban on barristers conducting litigation.

The one-year-on study found that the Law Society Council has approved in principle a measure allowing employed solicitors to offer services to the public (subject to consumer protections being in place) and abolished a ban on cold-calling business clients.

Later this year it will reconsider proposals for fee-sharing.

Proposals to allow multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs) may require changes to primary legislation, it noted, which is a matter for the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD).

However, the OFT said it was looking to the council to take prompt action in lifting restrictions on fee-sharing, and withdraw fee guidance for probate and conveyancing work.

The OFT said no public action was immediately necessary to speed up reforms 'so long as deregulation is proceeding effectively'.

Law Society President David McIntosh said: 'We welcome the OFT report's recognition of what the Society has already achieved in terms of removing restrictive practices within the profession, and we are pleased that they acknowledge our need to ensure that there are adequate consumer protections in place where liberalisation takes place.'

The Bar Council welcomed the OFT's acceptance of its arguments for maintaining a ban on advertising comparative success rates.

But it hit back forcefully at OFT criticisms of the prohibitions on barristers entering partnerships and conducting litigation.

The OFT said it would pursue both issues, particularly allowing barristers to conduct litigation but the director-general of fair trading, John Vickers, would not say what action the OFT would take.

Bar Council chairman David Bean said the cost of regulating barristers to conduct litigation would be prohibitive, adding: 'I am amazed that after the Enron debacle, which demonstrated the importance of professional independence, the OFT is still promoting the idea that barristers should be allowed to join MDPs.'

See OFT report details

See Editorial

Jeremy Fleming