Plans to introduce the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) have run into serious difficulties, it has emerged. The Criminal Bar Association appears to have withdrawn its engagement with the controversial accreditation scheme amid a dispute about linking payment to accreditation level. In an email to members on Friday, CBA chair Max Hill QC said: ?Progress on QASA has been halted so far as the CBA is concerned.? The scheme as proposed would lead to ?a world in which the word barrister would have no meaning, and no place within the fee structure?, he added. read more