Legal Services Board

The Bar Council and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have warned of the dangers of using “one-sided” consumer reviews to assess the quality of lawyers.

The Law Society has outlined its opposition to the idea that law firms be required to signpost clients to review websites as part of moves to generate indicators of providers’ quality.

There is a long way to go to unlock the potential of technology to transform legal services and regulators have an important role in this, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board has said.

There must be a “third way” of ensuring that qualified lawyers are competent without relying on disciplinary proceedings, the director of regulation and policy at the Legal Services Board has said.

Changes to the regulation of lawyers – including altering the list of reserved legal activities – are part of Legal Services Board’s vision for the next 10 years of a changing legal market.

Approval for a 13% increase in the budget of the Legal Ombudsman has come with a warning that it must make deliver this time or face losing its role in dealing with complaints against lawyers.

The Legal Ombudsman has scaled back its planned increased budget for the coming year, but it is still set to increase by 13%, or another £5 per lawyer.

Consumers are “enthusiastic” about the creation of a single digital register of legal services providers, including elements such as fees, reviews and even star ratings, research has found.

The more innovative use of technology like artificial intelligence by unregulated providers of legal services is raising questions of whether there is a widening consumer protection gap.

The Bar Council and Law Society have accused the Legal Services Board of failing to take into account the impact of the pandemic on the profession in its latest draft strategy.