Brian Inkster

Mr Inkster lodged his response to the Equalities, Human Rights & Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

He said: “There is much to be concerned about in the drafting of the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill. Whilst the Law Society of Scotland have made much play about the bill undermining the rule of law and the independence of Scotland’s legal sector from the state, those concerns are overstated given the checks and balances built in for any intervention to take place.

“Of more concern is the conflict of interest that is set to continue if the Law Society of Scotland remains both regulator and representative body.

“From my own experience, the Law Society of Scotland needs a good hard look at how they actually conduct inspections of legal practice units. The process is unduly slow, cumbersome and unnecessarily adversarial. This is a common concern amongst other solicitors I have spoken to.”

He added: “The conflict that exists means that solicitors cannot easily, or readily, seek help from their own representative body in challenging or dealing with inspectors who have gone off the rails and/or processes and procedures that are not fit for purpose.

“The complaints process, as everyone knows, is in urgent need of reform. However, allowing the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (to be renamed the Scottish Legal Services Commission) to decide upon a new process is not necessarily the answer.

“The proposal to change the rule on solicitor ownership of alternative business structures from 51 per cent to 10 per cent is, I consider, a nonsense. That should be reduced to 0 per cent as is the case in England & Wales.”

You can submit your response to the Equalities, Human Rights & Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament here. You only now have until 9 August to do so.