Bar Council and Bar Standards Board launch new online system to modernise practising certificate applications
5 March 2012
The Bar Council and the Bar
Standards Board have today launched Barrister Connect, a new system to
enable barristers to renew their practising certificates
online.
This renewal process is now called 'Authorisation to Practise',
and introduces a more formal approach to the annual renewal of
practising certificates and the authorisation of barristers to
undertake reserved legal activities as defined by the Legal
Services Act 2007.
Barrister Connect
will be mandatory for all barristers who are able to access the
internet, and the Authorisation to
Practise process must take place online.
The new application process will result in changes to the
Barristers' Register from 1 May 2012, making it easier for clients
and consumers to see which activities a barrister is authorised to
carry out. The new, comprehensive process requires barristers
to:
- verify their current contact details, practising status and
entitlement to exercise reserved legal activities
- confirm whether they have completed the requisite amount of
Continuing Professional Development activity
- declare that they have and will maintain such insurance as is
required under the Bar Code of Conduct, and
- sign a declaration of truth designed to ensure understanding of
the new process.
In future, Barrister Connect
will also benefit barristers by enabling them easily to update
their contact details and set preferences as to how their
representative body communicates with them.