Indian and other foreign lawyers will have to pay the exclusive QLST provider £3,230, breaking down to £2,100, £825 and £305 respectively for an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), a technical legal skills test (TLST) and a multiple choice test (MCT). Under the previous scheme those costs were as low as £770.
In addition Kaplan will not operate facilities in India to conduct the test which means that Indian lawyers will have to travel to the UK and find accommodation there. Under the previous scheme, it was possible to take the test three times per year in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The exam had “basically been privatised by the SRA to an American outfit called Kaplan who now have a monopoly”, a person familiar with Kaplan’s appointment and the QLST told Legally India.
Another authoritative source said that at the original consultation in November 2008 it had been envisaged that there would be only one provider of QLTS assessments for the first three years. After that time it would be reassessed whether the market should be opened to other providers.
Candidates from outside of the European Economic Area and Switzerland will have to also pay a £200 application fee to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which is half the amount of £400 under the the QLTS precursor, the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT).
But the total fees for the now deprecated QLTT in January 2010, which were offered by five different private providers including Kaplan, were significantly lower. The Oxford Institute of Legal Practice charged the lowest amount at £770, while BPP law school fees were the highest at £1443. Kaplan charged the second-highest amount of £1070 for the QLTT.
The new scheme tests all international applicants on most of the areas of law as domestic candidates are tested on and the experience requirement has been removed, which was why it was always going to be more expensive than the previous test, said the second source.
In the past most UK law firms are understood to have paid for Indian lawyers employed by them to take the QLTT test.
Kaplan did not reply to emails seeking comment and the SRA was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
India is still not included in the list of jurisdictions permitted to take the QLST exam, due to an apparent clerical oversight. Jurisdictions such as New York state, Montana, South Africa, Cameroon and the Isle of Man were recently added to the list.
Update 30 September: Kaplan has sent a statement, which includes the following: “It is inevitable that such an extensive range of assessments, necessary to produce valid and reliable results that adequately protect the consumer and the standards of the profession, is more expensive than its predecessor.”
Comments
You are basically SILF person who will find every excuse to oppose the entry of competition... latest being the BCI's brilliant argument that market should open when the judicial reforms get done... and pigs would fly...
Jai Hind
1) as stuart popham told LI, the upcoming FTA between india and the EU will be the basis for allowing trade in legal services (if you oligarchs allow it to happen). uk can make special provisions for india and vice versa in the FTA.
2) india does not allow foreign law firms and the anti-liberalisation lobby has been behaving like kashmiri stone pelters. you have no right to complain.
3) the EU is on the verge of becoming a new country: learn to live with it. if anything, it is a lesson to india to embrace globalisation like china. this will create more opportunities for indian lawyers abroad. there are many chinese experts working in europe. we should also pursue FTA in services with ASEAN, japan etc asap.
SILF symbolises the culture of CWG: nepotism and inefficiency. go to hell!!
There is nothing that prevents an Indian firm with Indian lawyers to start business in UK after a simple registration.
This incessant chant for the entry of foreign firms is frankly at times quite embarrassing. There was one loser who in a recent post on LI solemnly suggested that everybody (i.e. he and his ilk) should fervently pray for the entry of foreign firms.
Living on a prayer! Yes, you agents of foreign capital, you all look truly pitiable, if not pathetic. I wonder what persons in other countries will be thinking at this never-ending wailing and grovelling for the entry of foreign firms.
With the economic pie getting bigger everyday, let Indian firms compete among themselves - instead of having a Kaplan-like monopoly.
Even if India allowed the foreign lawyers to take a bar exam to be locally qualified, the UK foreign lawyer qualification fees would be an almost insurmountable barrier for many Indian law graduates. This is almost akin to a non-tariff barrier and even if India had an FTA with the EU, it would still be considered as such.
While Indian legal administrators cannot point fingers at others for creating barriers, the UK authorities have taken a disappointing step which will only hurt them in the long run.
Also until India puts in place some measures to enable international law firms to have a presence in India, no one has the authority to comment on reciprocity of barriers etc.