On the 27 July, the Legal Services Board consented to a change in the Cab Rank Rule of the Bar Code of Conduct in which the current Terms of Work were replaced with new standard contractual terms.
The practical effect of the changes will be as follows:
1. The Terms of Work on which barristers offer their services to solicitors and the Withdrawal of Credit Scheme, as reproduced in Annexe G1 of the current Code of Conduct, together with the contractual version of those Terms at Annexe G2, will be abolished.
2. These terms will be replaced in the Code by the 'Standard Conditions of Contract for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons 2012'.
3. The Cab Rank Rule will be amended so that, instead of applying to the Terms of Work, it will apply to the new Standard Conditions of Contract AND to the terms which the barrister or his chambers have published as the barristers' standard terms. The usual exceptions to Cab Rank Rule will continue to apply.
4. The new Standard Conditions of Contract have been drawn up so that they apply not just to solicitors but also to all 'Authorised Persons', which here refers to persons/bodies authorised by the Law Society/Solicitors Regulation Authority under paragraph 18(1)(a) of the Legal Services Act 2007.
5. The new Standard Conditions will not operate as default terms.
6. Barristers are still free in any individual case to agree different terms or to agree to no terms and may amend the new Standard Conditions of Contract.
7. The Withdrawal of Credit List will be replaced by an advisory List of Defaulting Solicitors.
8. The complaints procedure for the List of Defaulting Solicitors will be very similar to the present Withdrawal of Credit Scheme, except that complaints to the Bar Council can only be made in respect of non-payment of joint tribunal awards of where judgment has been given for unpaid fees arising from work carried out under the new Standard Conditions of Contract.
9. Under transitional arrangements, the solicitors names in the Withdrawal of Credit List will be transferred to the List of Defaulting Solicitors.
It is anticipated that these changes will be put into effect at the end of October 2012 together with guidance.
All information can be found on the Bar Council website www.barcouncil.org.uk