The price is right

Janet Paraskeva explains that the practising certificate fee supports effective regulation

Many solicitors often ask just what they are getting for their practising certificate fee - and since next year the fee will be 700 I thought I should try to explain.

Under the Access to Justice Act 1999, the purposes for which the Law Society can use money raised through the mandatory practising certificate fee are limited.

For example, 'trade union' type activities are excluded and have to be paid for from the profit the Society makes on its commercial activities.

By far the most important service paid for by the practising certificate fee is regulation.

Effective regulation is what gives the public confidence in solicitors and what separates the profession from unqualified service providers.

It is also what underpins our right to self-regulation, which in turn lies at the heart of what it means to be a profession.

Next year, the Society will collect about 62 million in income from practising certificate fees.

That is a lot of money.

But then there is a lot of regulatory work to do.

The Society:

- Sets standards and ensures the quality of training for qualification as a solicitor;

- Sets the rules of conduct that define the professional standards that solicitors have to follow; and

- Ensures that solicitors comply with the high standards required and remove those who do not match up, so that the public is protected, and the profession's reputation is maintained.

In addition, we are having to build our consumer redress scheme for people who have had problems with their solicitors.

We know that if the Society does not regulate the profession effectively, someone else will be given the task - a quango, perhaps, which would not have to worry about the bill it charges the profession.

The Society's regulatory powers must be exercised in the interests of the public, rather than in the sectional interests of the profession.

Indeed, in this day and age, it is only by defending the public interest that we defend the profession's interests.

That is why lay involvement in the Society's regulatory role is increasingly important to our work.

To retain self-regulation, which ensures that solicitors have a significant input to shaping rules and standards, we have to be modern regulators.

As needs and expectations change, the Society also provides the guidance, information and practice support to help solicitors to adapt.

Solicitors receive updates and specialist newsletters, participate in groups and networks, and make frequent use of our practice advice and professional ethics helplines.

As well as providing regulatory and practice support activity, the Society also needs to help the profession reach out to the public, and to explain its role and value.

We will soon be publishing a client's charter to help give information about the high standards, good service and consumer protections they can expect when they choose a solicitor.

We will also continue with the Society's other important work, where our weight and authority as a regulator provides influence and access to decision makers that no one firm could hope to achieve on its own.

An enormous contribution is made to law reform across a wide range of subject areas, drawing on solicitors' practical experience through our specialist committees to help improve law for the public and the business community.

We will continue to work tirelessly for better practise rights for solicitors in England and Wales who wish to practise abroad.

And on top of that, there are hundreds of representations and meetings, day in and day out, with government departments, other regulators, interest groups and organisations and the media, all with the goal of putting forward the views of solicitors and their clients - working for better law, effective access to justice, and efficient administration of justice.

I know that for many solicitors, 700 is not a small sum.

But if you think of it as the price of maintaining public confidence, of keeping a competitive advantage over unqualified service providers, of upholding the profession's right to regulate itself, and of campaigning for good law, then I think it can be seen as a sensible and necessary investment to safeguard the profession's future.

Janet Paraskeva is chief executive of the Law Society