Approved changes last week will pave the way for new standard contractual terms between solicitors and barristers.
Under amendments to the BSB's code of conduct approved by the LSB, the cab rank rule will apply where work is offered to a barrister on the new contractual terms or any standard terms offered by the barrister. The rule will not apply to work offered by firms named on the List of Defaulting Solicitors, where a solicitor has not paid a barrister’s fees.
Increasingly barristers are seeking to agree contractual terms with solicitors and mitigate the risk of non-payment. Under the current code they are not obliged to accept instructions on negotiated contractual terms. Granting the BSB’s application last week, LSB chief executive Chris Kenny said he did not consider the BSB’s solution to the issue to be ‘the most appropriate’ but that there is ‘no reason’ to refuse it. ‘In making this decision, the LSB has formed no view on the appropriateness of the cab rank rule.’
Read it at the Gazette.