WRITTEN RESPONSES TO RICHARD COMMISSION
CONSULTATION
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Letter received from Vice President of the
incorporated Law Society for Cardiff & District
dated 21 July 2003
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| Dear Sirs |
| Members of the Cardiff
& District Law Society are solicitors practising in
both the private and public sectors in Cardiff and certain
parts of the Vale of Glamorgan, including Barry. |
| One of the roles
of a local law society is to protect and develop its members'
business in the practice of law. Other organisations which
are representative of solicitors in Wales will make specialist
submissions to your Commission. This letter simply seeks
to address a few points relevant to solicitors pursuing
their business in and from Cardiff. Essentially these
points emanate from what has come to be known as the repatriation
of the administration of justice to Wales and the pressure
for primary legislative powers for the National Assembly. |
| It is said that
the development of two systems of justice - one for England,
another for Wales - is a natural consequence of devolving
the primary legislative process to Cardiff Bay and even
of our establishing a substantial portfolio of secondary
legislation peculiar to Wales. This Society would have
some concerns about such a separation taking place. |
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England and
Wales both currently benefit from the fact that there
is a free flow of talent between the two countries and
we would emphasise that the benefits are mutual. Therefore,
any suggestion that there should be a discrete Welsh
Division of the High Court hearing Welsh business and/or
cases arising within our territory or even a Division
of the Court of Appeal dedicated to and sitting in Wales
- with a Welsh Bar acquiring practical exclusivity over
cases being heard in Welsh Courts - would give rise
to concerns about quality. Is there sufficient work
to attract and retain the best judges and barristers
within Wales? If Welsh litigants were prevented from
seeking justice through courts in England (particularly
London) would they feel that they were being deprived
of the best which the system i.e. "the law" can offer?
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| Rather than seek
a separate Welsh system of justice, this Society would
prefer to encourage and develop recent initiatives to
retain a unified system for England and Wales but to push
it out to all the "provinces" of England and Wales from
London. We applaud and support moves to promote
mercantile, TCC, Chancery and Appellate Court services
in Cardiff. Solicitors in Cardiff are well equipped to
deal with such work. The judiciary likewise. The Bar is
beginning to address the situation through its Specialist
Bar Association. It will, however, take time for practitioners
within the solicitors' profession - particularly those
distant from Cardiff - to gain total confidence in the
ability of the judiciary and the Bar to provide in Wales
the quality of justice that is available in London and
other major centres of legal excellence in England. |
| Another question
which arises from the devolution debate is the extent
to which separate systems lead to greater complexity,
lack of clarity and additional cost so far as the practice
of law is concerned. This may well be the case but this
Society is more concerned about the effect which
greater separation between England and Wales would have
upon the business of practising law in Wales. The profession
is a major contributor to the Welsh economy and has gone
a long way to establishing Cardiff as a centre of legal
excellence, punching far above its weight in the UK and
challenging cities such as Bristol, Manchester and Leeds
as sources of high quality and competitively priced legal
services. Cardiff s success is, however, dependent upon
its firms' and chambers' ability to transfer talented
lawyers and their workloads back and fore between its
offices and courts in England and Wales and to persuade
English based businesses to have their legal work undertaken
in Wales. We would not want our clients (existing and
potential) to gain the perception - however erroneously
- that Wales is a no-go area for legal advice, as being
within a separate "jurisdiction". To date, Cardiff lawyers
have avoided the difficulties encountered by, for example,
their counterparts in Belfast in attracting work from
business based in England. We would not want separation
from England to make the business and practice of law
more difficult (or less economically viable) than is presently
the case. |
| It is the view of
this Society that devolution has enhanced opportunities
for solicitors in Cardiff. This has, however, been a development
of our previous position as a major centre within England
and Wales for the provision of legal services. We would
be concerned about the ability of the profession within
Cardiff to maintain this position, either professionally
or commercially, if any further separation of laws or
of the systems for the administration of justice was to
be introduced in the future. |
| A separate point
upon which the Commission might appreciate a comment from
practitioners is with regard to the accessibility of Welsh
legislation and Assembly output of particular interest
to practising lawyers. We understand that commercial publishers
may be reluctant to promulgate such information to lawyers
in an easily absorbable format - probably because it would
not be financially viable. This is a problem. The answer
probably lies in the Assembly promoting a system of communication
in co-operation with the legal professions and the law
schools of Wales. |
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| Yours faithfully
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|
D GUY CLARKE
Vice President |
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