Legal Services Act

The “end is in sight” for the Legal Services Board (LSB) and it can be abolished in about three years’ time, the Bar’s regulator has told the government. The Bar Council stopped short of this, but said the LSB should be reined in.

The continued rise in the cost of legal services at a time when consumer wealth has fallen could be putting people off seeking legal advice, new research has suggested. The Legal Services Board report also found indications of falling quality.

The Legal Ombudsman is to reduce its budget by 14% – amounting to nearly £3m – over the next year, it has revealed. It is in large part accounted for by a far lower receipt of case fees last year than had been expected.

Lack of compliance by law firms and chambers with the new requirements to publish information about the diversity of their staff “will in itself tell a story”, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has claimed.

Rocket Lawyer, the Google-backed US online legal document service, has taken the next step in its plans to launch in the UK this year by opening a London office and recruiting a senior member of the LexisNexis team to lead it.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s is planning to increase its power to fine law firms from £2,000 to £250m, and to £50m for individuals, Legal Futures can reveal. The Law Society has described the move as “misconceived”.

Chambers with fewer than 10 staff and/or members should not have to publish the results of the diversity survey that they all have to complete this year, their regulator is to tell the Legal Services Board.

Organisations whose in-house solicitors provide reserved legal activities to people other than their employer – such as insurers, associations and local authorities – will have to decide for themselves whether by law they need to become alternative business structures, according to the SRA.

The Co-op – which yesterday received its alternative business structure licence – is to provide legal services through its banking network as it seeks to challenge the “legal postcode lottery”, it has announced.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to issue best-practice guidelines to solicitors and firms it regulates about being deaf aware, after new research showed that legal services were often inaccessible to people with hearing loss.

Co-operative Legal Services and high street firms John Welch and Stammers, and Lawbridge Solicitors Ltd have today become the first alternative business structures licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Well-known legal expenses insurer Abbey Protection is to launch a three-pronged attack on the SME market once its application to become an alternative business structure has been approved, it has revealed.

A groundbreaking online probate service has gone live, allowing people to handle straightforward cases themselves for £349. In the coming months it will also be sold to law firms as a white-label product. Meanwhile, the Law Society has begun investigating online legal services.

Prospective clients and third parties will be able to make complaints about lawyers, if plans unveiled by the Legal Ombudsman today go ahead. The one-year time limit for making complaints to LeO will also be extended, as will the level of compensation it can award.

The Bar Standards Board has given way on the final outstanding issue on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates and it is now to begin in the summer. Plea-only advocates, who had been at the centre of a major disagreement, will not have to undergo judicial assessment.