Law firm opts for BARCO escrow account despite pricing myths

A law firm, which recently became a Bar Standards Board (BSB) entity, has signed up to the Bar Council's third-party escrow account service.

Evolve Family Law held discussions with the Bar Council about using BARCO after obtaining entity status from the Bar Standards Board in September.

The escrow account secures clients' payments for legal services by pooling the funds into a ring-fenced Barclays account.

The monies are not released to lawyers until they have completed the client work. All interest on the funds is returned to the client.

Director and co-founder of Evolve Family Law, Robin Charrot, said: 'There are many advantages to being regulated by the Bar Standards Board rather than the SRA but one of the potential downsides is that we are unable to hold client money.

'Our initial understanding of BARCO was that it is an expensive way of holding client funds. However, we met with the Bar Council to find out more and I am glad we did.'

Paul Mosson, BARCO director, explained that there was a lot of misinformation concerning the account service.

'When we meet with barristers, entities and even solicitors' firms to discuss BARCO, it is clear they are under the impression that we charge 2 per cent of the total amount held in the escrow account,' he said.

'The reality is that it is 2 per cent of the legal fees, which will be considerably less. We were happy to put the record straight with Evolve Family Law.'

BARCO was originally set up to allow clients to pay direct access barristers for their services without breaching rules that prohibit barristers from handling client funds.

Matthew Rogers is an editorial assistant at Solicitors Journal matthew.rogers@solicitorsjournal.co.uk | @sportslawmatt