Consumer panel

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to the online delivery of legal services, with consumers generally happy with the experience, major new research has found.

Lawyers should have to take online tests every 10 years to prove that they remain competent in their specialist fields, the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel said yesterday.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is planning a pilot with other legal regulators on how to extend the use of unbundling as evidence showed it could save consumers up to 50% in fees, it has emerged.

There is “no conclusive evidence” to show that consumers who use unregulated services obtain worse outcomes than those using regulated firms, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.

Law firms should advertise unbundled services or offer them directly to clients, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said, highlighting the “untapped potential” to support consumers in accessing advice.

A “troubling inequality” between BAME and White British consumers in the way they access legal services has changed little in the five years since it raised the issue, the consumer panel has found.

Consumers of legal services are more likely to shop around and to make a formal complaint if they do not get what they want than in previous years, new research has found.

Legal regulators should allow unregulated firms to test their ideas in regulatory sandboxes set up to foster innovation, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.

Independent websites providing impartial information on the quality of legal services providers are needed to guide people looking for a lawyer, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has argued.

The Legal Services Board is to create a standing panel of members of the public to help develop future policies – in addition to its existing consumer panel.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has attacked SRA plans to reform the Compensation Fund, saying it should instead stop draining the fund to pay for closing down law firms.

Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a centralised test for solicitors wanting higher rights of audience have divided opinions among organisations and individual solicitors.

More use of fixed fees and an increase in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s fining powers are among recommendations made today by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly attacked plans by the Legal Ombudsman to extend its publication of information about complaints, arguing that it would not help consumers.

Reforms to the regulation of legal services proposed by an independent review would lead to a “massively uncertain and costly system”, the president of the Law Society has said.