Legal Services Act

The Cabinet Office has refused to confirm whether it is going ahead with shutting down the websites of the Legal Services Board, Legal Ombudsman and Legal Services Consumer Panel after a strong attack in the House of Lords last night that claimed it threatens the independence of the legal profession.

Sole practitioners are set to requisition a special general meeting of the Law Society and a postal vote of all solicitors in a bid to overturn Chancery Lane’s support for alternative business structures (ABSs) and wreck the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become an ABS regulator, Legal Futures can reveal.

The future for high street lawyers is to evolve into a relationship manager who can direct clients to find the right advice from a range of legal and non-legal sources, the managing director of LexisNexis in the UK has said.

Three in five consumers would consider buying legal services from a range of consumer brands, a major piece of market research from YouGov has revealed. The work also found low recognition of any current legal brands, while a third of consumers said they would be attracted by online legal services.

Our latest round-up of other news of interest to Legal Futures readers includes a survey of among larger firms about ABS intentions, a lay majority on the BSB, women lawyers convinced male colleagues are paid more, good news for a big LPO provider and much more.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) “may not be as big a threat” to small firms as some fear, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has suggested. A draft impact assessment also argued that ABSs could help equality and diversity in the legal profession by breaking the traditional partnership model that has held it back.

The Legal Services Board has for the first time granted an application to extend the reach of reserved legal activities, giving the Institute of Legal Executives the power to award the right to conduct litigation to associate prosecutors.

The Legal Ombudsman has criticised changes to the minimum terms and conditions for solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance that were approved by its parent Legal Services Board just last year.

The government is encouraging barristers to proceed “full steam ahead” with plans to compete with solicitors’ firms for legal aid block contracts, it has emerged. Peter Lodder, chairman of the Bar Council, also revealed that a government consultation on competitive tendering for legal aid contracts could be launched as early as the end of May.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will rebuff any efforts to restrict its ability to regulate alternative business structures (ABSs) that are 100% owned by non-lawyers, its chief executive has said. There are suggestions of a compromise on its ABS licensing application that would mean the SRA not regulating ABSs that are wholly externally owned, at least initially.

Frontline regulators are letting down consumers by failing to collect information on how lawyers are handling complaints, a review by the Legal Services Board has concluded. This would make it difficult for them “to identify systemic issues and adopt a targeted approach to regulation”.

The maximum fine for misdemeanours by alternative business structures should be £250m, the Legal Services Board has decided, having considered the amounts of money made by some law firms out of miners’ compensation claims.

A car accident claims manager has revealed its intention to become an alternative business structure, Legal Futures can report. Hampshire-based Vamco, which specialises in repair management and credit hire, is planning to take over a branch office of Nesbit Law Group, which is currently located in the same building under the name Kingsley Law.

The Legal Services Board is pressing ahead with plans to make the new regulatory chamber of the First-tier Tribunal the sole venue for appeals against decisions made over ABSs, despite strong objections from solicitors. It is a move that could damage hopes that the Law Society council will next month approve the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become an ABS licensing authority.

Consumers believe that a lawyer who has provided a bad service should be “named and shamed”, research released today has found. However, there are signs that consumers are likely to use published information “in a way that may be at odds with the Legal Ombudsman’s reasons for publication”.