LASPO! There I’ve said it. I believe everyone has now crawled out of their Jackson proof bunkers and realised that there life out there and there is a continuing need for personal injury lawyers, but it just isn’t quite the same as it was pre April 2013.

At the beginning of the year we launched a whole new strategy for supervising chambers – based on identifying existing risks in the way in which chambers run their businesses and responding proportionately. In my many years at the Bar Standards Board (BSB), this is a different way of doing things, done by a fresh team.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority recently published data showing a 47% increase in the number of solicitor-on-solicitor complaints received in 2013 (2,698); it also provided data that showed a four-fold increase in the number of self-reports made (1,019).

There’s been a lot of chatter around the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposal to allow paralegals to qualify as solicitors, without undertaking a formal training contract, and many voices argue that this will lead to a further dumbing down of the profession.

In a guest blog, Chris Handford – head of research and development at the Legal Services Board – explains the reasons behind the board’s new research survey on the costs of regulation – and how practitioners can have their say