Consumer panel

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposed new handbook to govern the regulation of the profession is “a missed opportunity to deliver fully cultural change within firms” and that it could learn from the Financial Services Authority, the leading voice of legal consumers has claimed.

The Legal Services Board is to fast-track a decision on whether to regulate will-writers, it has emerged, with its consumer panel launching a formal investigation as a first step.

Conveyancers should be allowed to act for both seller and buyer far more regularly than is currently permitted, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. They should also be required to include non-optional costs in their upfront fees.

Clients should be given the information they need to identify firms with poor compliance histories so that they “can punish them by voting with their feet”, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. It also called on the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a leniency programme for solicitors who blow the whistle on misconduct in which they are involved with others.

The role of the QC mark and various accreditation schemes, including Law Society panels, in helping the public identify quality legal services is to be tested, it has emerged, with the Legal Services Consumer Panel expressing scepticism over their value to consumers.

A row is brewing between the Law Society and the Legal Services Consumer Panel over the make-up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) board, Legal Futures can reveal. The Law Society says it has no intention of taking active steps to remove the solicitor majority on the board until the current members’ terms end in 2013.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has indicated its desire to see the composition of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority change before the end of the current members’ terms so as to achieve a lay majority.

Referral fees should not be banned, but require greater disclosure and more stringent regulation, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has concluded. This could include conveyancing clients providing written consent to be referred and a ban on auctions for work.

As chair of the new Legal Services Consumer Panel, Dr Dianne Hayter challenges the profession’s orthodoxy with strong views on how the legal landscape should develop. Neil Rose finds that she also uses a different kind of language.

Lawyers should undergo five-yearly competence testing, as well as face peer review of the advice they provide clients, the chairwoman of the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.

A ‘Consumer Welfare Index’ that will measure the effectiveness of the legal services reforms is to be developed by the Legal Services Consumer Panel, it announced today (30 March). The panel will also look to help price comparison websites operate properly in the legal market.