The prospect of becoming a solicitor generates different thoughts in everyone's minds; some people relish the thought of being admired ; some bask in the glory (when they are on a winning streak, of course); some people want to be rich and some people actually enjoy the law.
In truth, the world of law is very different to what people perceive it to be, I'm sure all jobs have their quirks but the law is different.
The fact is that when you are embarking on your legal career you have high expectations and perceptions of what to expect. We are given a false impression from Television programmes and what the glossy LPC brochures say.
This is very different to reality.
Your life is taken over by another being - they dictate what you can and what you can't do, this being is The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). They are the regulators of all solicitors in England and Wales and deal with complaints and the general day to day issues with solicitors.
They do an OK job, but in truth if they were doing a better job the legal profession wouldn't be on its knees right now.
Why is the profession on its knees? the simplest way of explaining it is that solicitors and the opening of new firms are not regulated in the fashion they should be. There has been an influx of small legal firms opening, stealing clients monies and running off with it, its not a secret, its on front pages on newspapers and the law society gazette. The answer for the innocent victims? - claim on the insurance of the form, this will take months and by the end of the whole saga the victims will either have had a nervous breakdown or become bankrupt.
How is that going to instill confidence in the public? why are checks not made on solicitors prior to them opening a firm? why are foreign solicitors not vetted to ensure that they are simply not being used as a scape goat for some other 'british qualified solicitor' who does not want to have their record tarnished? the fact is we are where we are because of the lack of regulation by the SRA. Simple.
The answer - Ensure that every single person wanting to qualify as a solicitor goes through a stringent interview and vetting process to ensure that they understand what 'being a solicitor' entails. Would it be deemed Politically Correct'? who cares? For the people that staunchly stand up for Political Correctness, ask them whether they would pay off a second or the third mortgage for someone that had been duped. No doubt the answer will be no.
Its easy to protest that certain things are not fair or are against peoples human rights but to be honest these people have never experienced or will never experience what it feels like to find out that the house that they 'sold', had actually been sold but the mortgage never paid off therefore making the victims still liable for that mortgage and a new mortgage (if they purchased a new home).
There should be a task force that attends every single new firm on a random check basis to ensure that everything is as it should be. People argue that the cost would be astronomical, why? where are the fees are paid by the 120,000 solicitors that practise in England and Wales for their practising certificate to practise? The fees are listed below.
http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/pc-registration-renewal/fees/fee-policy.page#pracfee
The fact is that as a profession we are let down by our so called regulators, who take a fee and do not protect us from fraudulent solicitors, who in the end effect us all. Their fraudulent behaviour means that more paperwork has to be carried out by all solicitors to show transparency; insurance fees go up; practising certificate fee goes up.
There really needs to be a thorough shake up of the system in order to instill some confidence back into the public.
Rant over.
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