Law Society president I Stephanie Boyce said solicitors have previously come under pressure to provide advocacy cover where barristers were taking direct action.
‘However, we would like to emphasise that we do not consider that the unavailability of counsel—for whatever reason—creates an obligation on a solicitor-advocate in the instructing firm to take over any of the formerly instructed barrister’s responsibilities if they do not feel competent to do so.
‘Nor is there an obligation in any new cases to take on the advocacy if an external advocate cannot be found. Moreover, in the current circumstances, it will not be surprising if many solicitors decided independently that they are unable to take on work where they cannot be confident either of finding an advocate for the case, or of it being economically viable to undertake the advocacy in-house.’
View the Law Society guidance here.
