Solicitor-advocates fear they will be marginalised by the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, and have suggested that some judges may not take part in the scheme.

Advocates looking to gain accreditation at the top-two levels of the four-tiered QASA process will need judicial evaluation as well as written assessment.

Judges will have to commit to up to 12 hours of training to be able to carry out assessments, but there is speculation that many will choose not to be trained.

That will leave advocates, particularly those in small towns, struggling to obtain at least three evaluations from completed trials in a year.

The problem could be exacerbated by the requirement for assessments to come from a range of judges, to whom the advocates must not be connected.

Avtar Bhatoa, a former chair of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, told a forum organised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week that many feared for their chances of accreditation if judges opt out.

‘Most judges who take solicitors-advocates seriously are refusing to take part in evaluation,’ he claimed.

A spokeswoman for the Judicial Communications Office said that all judges were expected to be trained in the QASA, with the process due to be completed by next spring.

However, the forum raised further questions over how the scheme will work in practice.

Solicitor-advocates questioned how practitioners will be able to ensure that they act in the required three completed trials in a 12-month period, when many cases may settle. They added that where the advocate wins they will not be able to be assessed on how they deal with ‘defence mitigation’.

Ian Kelcey, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, claimed that the scheme may lead to a ‘growth industry’ in appeals, because clients may seek to appeal if the advocate achieved only a low performance score in their case.

The scheme is currently undergoing a two-week ‘road-test’ in Birmingham, with a further trial - likely to be in London - in the autumn, before a staged launch next year.

The SRA, a principal member of the Joint Advocacy Group which drew up the terms of the QASA, said there is still room for changes and modifications, and stressed that solicitors’ concerns will be addressed.