Legal Services Board

The Legal Services Board is weighing up whether to launch a formal investigation into the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority is handling alternative business structure applications, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Legal Services Board’s initial probe into the independent regulation of barristers uncovered “a number of concerns about the Bar Council’s and the Bar Standards Board’s behaviour at both junior and senior executive as well as board level”, it has emerged.

Lawyers needs to improve their interpersonal skills, be patient, respectful and remove jargon to provide disabled clients with a better legal service, research has claimed. More also needs to be done to advertise legal services to people with learning disabilities.

There is “sufficient consistency of evidence and concern” about the standard of criminal advocacy to warrant the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Legal Services Board concluded today.

The Legal Services Board fears a successful legal challenge should it accept the compromise aimed at resolving the impasse over moving the handling of complaints about claims management companies to the Legal Ombudsman, Legal Futures has learned.

The future of the cab-rank rule is still up for debate despite approval of the new Bar Standards Board code of conduct, which includes it, the Legal Services Board has warned. The BSB is also set to raise the issue of a cab-rank rule for solicitors, it has emerged.

The Legal Ombudsman has put around 10% of its staff at risk of redundancy as it undertakes a restructuring brought about by receiving fewer complaints than expected. It has been exacerbated by difficulties in transferring over the handling of complaints about CMCs.

Lawyers’ lack of transparency over cost – rather than the actual cost of their services – is the major barrier to consumers seeking legal advice and the primary cause of a breakdown in trust between them, Legal Services Board research has found.

The Legal Services Board has been critical of the length of the time the Solicitors Regulation Authority has taken to approve alternative business structures, it has emerged.

The Legal Services Board has hit back at continuing criticism of its role and work by insisting that it has a legal duty to take positive action – and that turning the clock back to a pre-Legal Services Act world is not an option.