The Commerce and Industry Group (CIG), which represents more than 4,500 in-house lawyers across the UK, last week published an open letter calling on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to immediately implement Lord Hunt’s recommendations for a split practising certificate fee.
In his Review of the Regulation of Legal Services last October, Lord Hunt advocated that the fee be “equitably split between an entity element and an individual element” and that in-house solicitors pay the individual element only.
CIG’s open letter—addressed to the SRA, the Law Society and the Legal Services Board—also flags up research it conducted among more than 200 in-house lawyers.
Nine out of 10 respondents approved of differential fees and said in-house lawyers should pay less. Three-quarters of respondents believed the Law Society’s 20% hike of the 2010 fee was not justified.
Bill Graydon, CIG chief executive, says: “The group has been actively lobbying in recent years to find a fair solution for our membership regarding the practising certificate fee.
“Our members have lived with an annual fee which is excessive for far too long. We urge the SRA to adopt these recommendations and to carry out implementation at the earliest opportunity.”
The SRA has recognised the anomalies of the current system and is currently consulting on a new fee structure. Respondents had to comment by today on proposals outlined in the SRA’s paper, Moving Towards a Fairer Fee Policy.
Antony Townsend, SRA chief executive, says: “The current fee system is clearly unfair, and we are keen to encourage as much input as possible from the profession to help us achieve a fairer and simpler system. The new proposals, which are for a combination of individual and firm-based fees, would mean lower costs for in-house lawyers, who would not pay the firm-based fee.”
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