Response to Consultation on Assuring Advocacy Standards

The Criminal Law Committee has contributed to Birmingham Law Society’s response to the SRA consultation on Assuring Advocacy Standards, published today.  The Committee’s chair, Matt O’Brien, comments:

The Committee recognises the vital importance of ensuring a high quality of advocates in the criminal courts. We support many of the proposals made by the SRA in this consultation.   However, we do not accept that there is an evidential basis to justify some of the more controversial proposals, which in the Committee’s view are unnecessary and likely to result in adverse financial consequences for criminal practitioners.”

Read the full response here.