2011 Practising Certificate Renewal and Fee Collection
Practising Certificate Renewal and Fee Collection
As you may be aware, there has been a delay in the annual process of renewing the practicing certificates of solicitors. This process is administered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is the independently-operating regulatory arm of the Law Society.
Clearly, any delay to the annual renewal process is naturally a concern to many practitioners. The Law Society has this week (25th November 2011) written to the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Building Societies Association explaining the current position in an effort to seek their assistance in better informing their individual lender members that all current practising certificates have been extended. The Law Society is hopeful that the delay that has been encountered will only be for a few weeks. Please visit www.sra.org.uk for the latest information.
Any solicitors facing any difficulties or who need any assistance from the Society should not hesitate to contact the Practice Advice Service (email practiceadvice@lawsociety.org.uk or telephone 0870 606 2522)
The Law Society would like to assure you that these delays do not affect solicitors’ entitlements to continue to practise and the SRA has confirmed this.
Under the SRA’s rules, there is no automatic expiry of practising certificates. They continue in force until they are replaced with new certificates or until the SRA revokes them. What that means is that the practising certificates issued for the practising year commencing 1 November 2010 continue to be valid and remain in full force and effect beyond 31 October 2011.
The Law Society should also make clear that the delay does not affect the validity of the SRA authorisations, which solicitors’ firms have. Nor do the delays touch the validity of the professional indemnity insurance policies which solicitors’ firms are required to have under the SRA’s rules.
Yours sincerely
Desmond Hudson
Chief Executive – The Law Society
25 November 2011
