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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