CILEX welcomes push towards continuing competence checks for lawyers
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has announced plans to push ahead with continuing competence checks for lawyers, a move that CILEX said was an “important step towards improving consumer confidence in lawyers”.
The oversight regulator claimed that the legal sector was “out of step” with other industries and what consumers expect by having “few checks on an individual’s competence throughout their careers” and that the CPD regime was not robust enough on its own.
In a report on responses to its call for evidence on the issue, the LSB stated that “some regulators, firms, chambers, circuits and individuals in the legal services sector have adopted methods for testing competence, but unfortunately, these are not used routinely, tend to have limited coverage and may not be targeted to risks to consumers”.
The LSB will look to set out standards of competence that lawyers should meet throughout their careers and the mechanisms the frontline regulators should have in place to identify those failing to meet them, as well as “areas of increased risk” to consumers.
These processes could include feedback from consumers, judges and peers, assurance visits and even formal revalidation.
A number of organisations, such as CILEX Regulation, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, said client feedback should be captured.
CILEX responded to the report by arguing that “maintaining public trust and confidence requires not just high standards of qualification but the maintenance of competence through continuous professional development”.
It was “nonsense” that lawyers could qualify and then have no requirement to update their skills and knowledge at any point of their career.
CILEX welcomed the opportunity to engage with the LSB and CILEX Regulation “to consider how members can demonstrate their ongoing competence without increasing the cost of regulation or creating a disproportionate administrative burden”.
The LSB said it intended to hold pre-consultation workshops in mid-2021 and formally consult on a “more robust approach” in the second half of the year.
