Consumer panel

Consumers believe regulators ensure they have protections when buying legal services – although they don’t really know what they are – and are content to pay extra for them, a survey of users’ perceptions has found. But they also expect lawyers to provide better information about their rights.

Legal regulators have failed to open up their professional registers containing disciplinary information to price comparison websites, despite having been instructed to do so by the Legal Services Board, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has complained.

The Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel have thrown their weight behind Friday’s Office of Fair Trading report that urged continuing simplification of the regulatory regime for lawyers, particularly around complaints.

Regulators face an “uphill struggle” to put consumers in a position where they can be useful in helping to driving competition in the legal market, a study has warned. The Legal Services Consumer Panel suggested consumers are “currently not very empowered” and lack confidence.

The Office of Fair Trading has written to five legal price comparison websites to urge them to ensure they are providing clear information to consumers, after a review suggested that some sites could do more to improve trust amongst the public.

There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to produce a “bold blueprint” for change in legal education and training, but “vested interests” are striving to water it down, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has cautioned.

Vulnerable asylum seekers are at risk of “serious detriment” from a complex asylum process and potentially “sloppy” work by immigration advisers, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

Regulators need to take urgent action to improve the way lawyers handle complaints after a “hard-hitting” new report highlighted multiple failings. However, although clients are often scared to complain, a positive experience when they do can actually make them likely to recommend the provider.

Compensation arrangements for consumers involved in legal transactions that go wrong are outdated and need to be improved, the Legal Services Board has said in calling on its consumer panel to undertake research and provide advice on the issue.

Regulators of the legal profession will have to gather and publish evidence of where lawyers are falling down on quality – including information on disciplinary action – following a wide-ranging review by the Legal Services Board.