Legal Services Board

More use of fixed fees and an increase in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s fining powers are among recommendations made today by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

The Legal Services Board has named the former chair of its consumer panel as its preferred candidate to chair the Office for Legal Complaints, the board of the Legal Ombudsman.

The way legal services are provided needs to change to recognise that a large portion of the population struggles with the law and needs more help with accessing it, new research has urged.

The Legal Services Board is ramping up pressure on the Law Society, the Bar Council and other approved regulators over ensuring the independence of their regulatory arms.

Law firms, chambers and other legal services providers could be forced to sign up to comparison websites so that clients can let others know about the quality of service they received.

The vast majority of clients are happy with the services they receive, according to the largest ever legal needs survey, but only 55% of those with legal issues actually sought out professional advice.

The Legal Services Board has launched a call for evidence on continuing competence, the first stage in a promised review of the issue that could lead to periodic checks on lawyers’ fitness to practise.

The Bar Standards Board has been told that it needs to act more quickly on how it plans to educate the public about barristers after its widely criticised decision to stop funding Legal Choices.

Approval of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam is not a foregone conclusion, the Legal Services Board is to make clear to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Issues such as quality and cost must be addressed.

The Competition and Markets Authority has ramped up the pressure on the Bar Standards Board over its decision to stop funding the cross-regulator Legal Choices website.

The Legal Services Board has issued a thinly veiled warning to the Bar Standards Board over the need to invest “substantially” in consumer information after withdrawing from funding Legal Choices.

The Legal Services Board is looking for a person with experience of “turn-around situations” to become the new chair of the Office of Legal Complaints, the board which oversees the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Services Board has heard calls for regulators to take a more “hands-on” approach to ensuring that lawyers remain competent through their careers.

The Legal Services Board could steal a march on the Solicitors Regulation Authority by holding at least one of its board meetings in public, it has emerged.

The Legal Services Board could start reviewing regulators’ case files to increase its oversight of the quality of their disciplinary decisions in the wake of the Leigh Day case, it has emerged.