Law Society president's firm becomes an ABS

Scott Moncrieff and Associates, Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff’s firm, was granted an ABS license by the SRA yesterday. It will be effective from 1 June 2013.

The firm, a network of over 50 lawyers, represented disabled claimants in a judicial review hearing yesterday challenging the government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund from March 2015.

The fund supports 20,000 severely disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has intervened in the case. The hearing is listed for two days, with judgment likely to be reserved.

Anna Turnbull-Walker, a mental health specialist, will be the firm’s COLP and Rakesh Garg, who specialises in mental health, prison and public law, its COFA. The total number of ABSs approved by the SRA now stands at 108.

Samantha Barrass, director of regulation at the SRA, told yesterday’s board meeting that the average time the regulator was taking to approve ABS applications had been cut from 5.5 months in January this year to 3.8 months now.

Barrass said that by focussing on “aged applications” the regulator hoped to reduce the average further, perhaps by the end of this week.

She said that although it was important not to become “too fixed on numbers”, it was crucial that applications were treated as ‘work in progress’ for “good reasons, and not because they are in a shoe box under somebody’s bed”.

Barrass went on: “In a couple of weeks I am pretty sure we will be able to say that work in progress is there for good reasons and not bureaucratic ones.

“The application rate is still quite high. We’re not going to know what a stable level is for some time to come.”

Charles Plant, chairman of the SRA, added: “We do acknowledge that there has been some delay in issuing licences and it was necessary for us to catch up.”