The SRA handbook has always been over 600 pages long (what a misnomer by the way – you would need jolly big hands). The first edition was put on the SRA website in October 2011. The 15th appeared in November 2015. This means the SRA has updated it about every three months on average.
What a fabulously useful expenditure of energy. I used to ask our office junior to print it off for me, but she resigned in protest. Now the SRA says it is going to reduce it in length to 50 pages in its continuing assault on red tape.
Who introduced the thing in the first place? Is there anyone still at the SRA implicated in producing this daft handbook who could be sacked? It’s only five or six years ago after all and the statement of intent to shorten it seems to show clearly that they know they got it all wrong.
Meanwhile, we hear that the Legal Ombudsman seeks to revive the bizarre idea of allowing third parties to compel us to deploy our complaints procedure – an initiative [former chief executive] Adam Sampson abandoned back in 2013.
This should be fun if it comes in. Nowadays, when some opponent to whom we write a letter before action cuts up rough about it and sends one a green-ink missive, one can safely ignore the complaint. We will not be doing that in future, but rather offering our complaints service complete with online access details – as per the EU directive– for getting ADR in Brussels, Gdansk, Athens or wherever, on a virtually served basis.
Of course, the majority of the profession does not come across the LeO often. That is clearly because we don’t tell people often enough to complain about us or how to do so. It couldn’t possibly be anything to do with the notion that some solicitors might do a decent job for their clients.
Adrian Dalton, partner, Ben Hoare Bell, Sunderland
