Gills Solicitors

established in 1985

Publications - Choosing Your Legal Advisor

Your Legal Advisor

Choosing This is often a difficult point to deal with and we hope that the information given on this site will give you a brief insight into this practice. We would however recommend that you pay particular attention to the Lawyers qualifications and experience. In England and Wales all practicing Solicitors have to be registered with the Law Society. They also need to have a current Practice Certificate issued by the Law Society on annual payment of a fee.

All Solicitors practices have to maintain compulsory professional indemnity insurance with the Solicitors Indemnity Fund or SIF. If you are in doubt you must check both aspects with either the Law Society or SIF. One of the big issues facing the profession at present is not with the properly English trained and qualified Solicitors but what might be termed the "Grey" market which can comprise of "non practicing Barristers", "Foreign Registered Lawyers" and foreign Lawyers who have become Solicitors by taking the qualified Lawyers Test or QLT. Non Practicing barristers are sometimes found in Solicitors practices working as "Assistants". Accident Claims are now all a Liddington Specialisty

They have usually taken the Bar Finals in England at one of the Bar Schools or "Inn of Court" without undertaking "pupilage" or training with a Senior Barrister which would entitle them to practice as fully fledged barristers in the Higher Court. Foreign Registered Lawyers as the name indicates are foreign qualified Lawyers who are allowed to practice in this jurisdiction. By definition they have no training or qualifications which would be enable them to give advice on the Law in England and Wales. This would not be a great issue if for instance a New York (USA) qualified Attorney advises Client on New York's USA's Law. However if he starts to advice Clients on English Consumer Law or Family Law and holds himself out as having such expertise, this could have sever consequences if the correct advice and actions are not taken.

The QLT is basically a test for foreign qualified Lawyers who wish to become Solicitors in England and Wales. The test is an academic test on the "core legal" subjects. It is quite similar to the old Solicitors Finals Examination and the current Legal Practice Course (LPC) but less broad areas are tested and there maybe exemptions granted. Significantly however, once a Lawyer passes the QLT he or she can call themselves a Solicitor without having undergone further training with a firm of Solicitors. Remember that a student who completes the LLB and LPC successfully then has to undergo two years of training with a firm of Solicitors who are, for this purpose registered with the Law Society. The principle or the named Solicitor with whom the Trainee Solicitor is registered must be qualified for at least five years. We therefore feel that someone who has gone through the training process or "Articles" as it used to be known would have far superior skills and training to provide proper advice to Clients.

There are two further issues raised by the QLT, which we feel, must be addressed. Firstly it does not involve a test of written or spoken English. One of the basic fundamentals of a Solicitors daily practice is preparation of clear and concise documents and letters and communication with the Client. A Solicitor's day at the office usually involves "without prejudice" negotiations or "Subject to Contract" letters. We feel that a written and spoken English test similar to the pre-PLAB test introduced by the British Medical Authority should be an essential part of the QLT to determine if the Solicitor has adequate command of English for Basic Advocacy.

Secondly, we know that the passing of QLT almost always leads to the Solicitor being allowed to set up in Practice on their own without any other training. Compare this with the position of someone who has undertaken two years training to qualify. They have to be in practice i.e. with other Solicitors for three years before they can practice on their own. While the QLT qualified Solicitor may well be a brilliant academic Lawyer, the skills needed for daily practice are far different for practical problems. We feel that this is an area where there has to be greater control by the Law Society for both Lawyers and Clients.