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The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board have begun work on creating an online “virtual community” for consumers known as “Legally Speaking”. The news comes as we can reveal the Legal Services Consumer Panel has escaped the “bonfire of the quangos” – just as the panel’s chairwoman is stepping down.

We all know the line about damned lies and statistics, and there has been no shortage of the latter as Legal Services Act survey after Legal Services Act survey is published. Certainly the statistics reported today by the Legal Services Consumer Panel can be interpreted in various ways. Overall, 80% of people were satisfied with the legal service they received. Is that good? It sounds OK to me.

The Legal Services Board is to recommend to the Lord Chancellor that the Law Society – through the Solicitors Regulation Authority – become an alternative business structure licensing authority. However, there has been a disagreement over the separate business rule.

The role of price comparison and customer review websites are set to come under scrutiny from the Legal Services Board as part of efforts to help consumers judge the technical quality of the legal advice they receive. It will also consider whether a “badge” would distinguish regulated and non-regulated providers.

A groundbreaking assessment of the progress in delivering the legal services reforms from a consumer perspective is the centrepiece of the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s plan for the forthcoming year, delegates at today’s Legal Futures Conference will hear. The idea of a “single regulatory badge” will also be floated, along with good practice standards for legal comparison websites