Tag Results

The sanctions and appeals regimes of the frontline regulators are an inconsistent “jumble” of different powers that may protect lawyers rather than consumers, according to the Legal Services Board.

The frontline regulators need lay chairs at the helm so as to cut the “overly strong ties” that still exist with their branches of the profession and have held back change, the Legal Services Board said yesterday. The call was met by strong opposition.

Some of the frontline regulators have hit back at the Legal Services Board’s assessment of their performance. A detailed report on the “smaller” regulators found a wide range of competence, both across the different regulators and within each of them individually.

The professional standards of costs lawyers will in future be independently assured after the Costs Lawyer Standards Board this week became their approved regulator. They can become partners in LDPs and are within the Legal Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

A single regulator for all legal services is “logical and plausible”, but not inevitable, a report for the Legal Services Board has concluded. Former Ministry of Justice official Nick Smedley argued that the existence of multiple regulators “focused on the differences of individual practitioners” is unlikely to be relevant in a post-alternative business structures market.