The government should act now to counter concerns about the Legal Services Bill’s threat to independence, says Desmond Browne QC
Last week the Legal Services Bill completed the fifth and final day of its committee stage in the House of Commons. With its inbuilt majority, the government which had been defeated no less than six times in the House of Lords, where the Bill was introduced, could not resist the opportunity to reverse those defeats. So unless a compromise can be found, there is a prospect of what Parliamentarians call “ping-pong” between the House of Lords and the House of Commons this autumn.
detail of the lsb
Like the Law Society, the Bar Council has supported the thrust of the Clementi reforms and has no complaint about the underlying structure of the proposed legislation based on a new Legal Services Board (LSB). But the Bar does believe there are serious problems with the detail of the LSB. Those concerns were shared by the House of Lords.
An amendment promoted by Lord Neill QC to require the concurrence of the lord chief justice to the appointment of
