Legal Services Act Rubber Stamped

by Stewart Douglas

Story link: Legal Services Act Rubber Stamped

The arrival of an independent body for dealing with legal complaints in England and Wales is now even nearer following the Royal approval of a new Act of parliament designed to take control of consumer complaints away from the legal profession.

The new Act, entitled the Legal Services Act will also pave the way for firms of collaborative professional services, to be known as ABS (Alternative Business Structures)m which could see law firms and insurers partner within the same entity for the first time, under regulation of the new Act.

The Act is designed to modernise the legal industry in line with other professional sectors to ensure independent handling of complaints by consumers, seeing the establishment of an Office for Legal Complaints designed to handle all enquiries from members of the public, rather than the Law Society as at present.

Additionally, it will introduce a new scheme of regulation for legal practice, particularly in relation to consumer clients which has until now been entirely regulated internally by lawyers, for lawyers, giving rise to allegations of favouritism and a ‘blind eye’ approach to certain misdemeanours.

Now under the new scheme the regulatory body will be chaired by a ‘lay’ person, in order to avoid any allegations of bias or unfair preferential treatment as compared to other professional services and their regulatory bodies.

Speaking today on the pending law Legal Services minister Bridget Prentice suggested that the move marks a change from the old perception of insiders looking out for one another in consumer complaints.

Whilst the change marks a significant shift towards independent regulation, the position in Scotland remains that complaints are dealt with the internal regulation of the legal system, pending any further move for reform.