There were red faces last week at the Bar Council after it banged out its response to the government’s call for evidence on legal regulation.
Like several other respondents, our bewigged chums took a pop at an easy target, the Legal Services Board. However in support of its case for the super-regulator’s abolition it alleged that the board had cost every barrister an average of £1,600 since its establishment.
Within hours the board had pointed out the error – in fact barristers have contributed roughly 6% of the £23.7m bill over five years. The average annual cost of the LSB for a barrister is now about £30 a year and declining.
In a statement later, the Bar Council admitted the error, saying the cost per barrister over five years should have been £162.
We make that an exaggeration by an order of magnitude. Force of habit from billing solicitors, we suppose.
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