Consumer panel

The Legal Services Board is likely to survive the government’s triennial review of its functions largely unscathed, despite a series of attacks from those it oversees, it has emerged.

There is evidence that the quality of legal advice is “too often sub-standard”, meaning the safety net for consumers needs to be enhanced, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said today as it launched its work programme for the next year.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has escaped the government’s consolidation of consumer advocacy and information into Citizens Advice – for now. The move was strongly opposed by the Legal Services Board but supported by the Law Society.

The “end is in sight” for the Legal Services Board (LSB) and it can be abolished in about three years’ time, the Bar’s regulator has told the government. The Bar Council stopped short of this, but said the LSB should be reined in.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to issue best-practice guidelines to solicitors and firms it regulates about being deaf aware, after new research showed that legal services were often inaccessible to people with hearing loss.

Probate and estate administration services should become reserved legal activities, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has recommended. It follows the panel’s call last year for will-writing to be regulated as well, which sparked a formal LSB investigation into the issue.

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Law firms are overwhelmingly failing to follow up referrals for basic legal work from comparison websites, in what is described today as a “massive own goal by the profession”. In a mystery shopping exercise, eight out of ten online referral requests for a simple will were ignored.

The government has been urged to oppose European proposals that could allow lawyers to make complaints about their clients. The Legal Services Consumer Panel has otherwise welcomed the EU proposals which could provide redress against unregulated providers.

The government review of the “continuing need for the functions and the form” of the Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints began yesterday with a call for evidence. It will take up to six months to complete.