The Legal Services Board (LSB) has announced the appointment of former barrister and current Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Epsom and Ewell, Lisa Davis to the newly formed Legal Services Consumer Panel. The role of the panel is to try to better gauge public engagement with the legal services sector. The appointment comes on the back…
SRA launches consultation on compensation fund changes
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has launched a consultation on “reforms to the compensation fund arrangements”. The consultation builds on the conclusions of the past consultation on compensation, covered here in 2018. Changes have been made based on the feedback given, including introducing a maximum cap on related claims and dropping proposals for the introduction of…
Reasonable adjustments in the provision of legal services: a report for the Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Competition and Markets Authority reported in 2016 that one of the major barriers to accessing and understanding legal services was a general lack of accessibility, particularly in how information is presented and shared. Charities such as Citizens Advice and Age UK have suggested that this is of particular concern regarding people who, due to…
Law School as a Consumer Product: Beat ’em or Join ’em?
Abstract: With rising costs, pressure on performance metrics and competitive high-profile rankings, law schools are more than ever before being judged on a consumer satisfaction basis by both students and the public. While this perception has been growing over the past two decades, it has reached a crisis point in legal education. When students have…
UK Competition and Markets Authority to research Scottish legal services market
The Competition and Markets Authority has issued the following press release regarding its impending research into certain aspects of the Scottish legal services market to support the Scottish Government’s response to the Roberton Review. The following release was published 17 June 2019. This work has been prompted by the Roberton Review, an Independent Review of…
SRA launches legal access challenge
Legal Access Challenge launched to encourage innovation Six in 10 don’t think the legal system in England and Wales is set up for ordinary people Many who experience a legal problem don’t take professional advice, citing cost and trust as key barriers Eight in 10 say it needs to be easier for people to access…
Solicitors Regulation Authority publishes Residential Conveyancing thematic review
A review about the service provided by solicitors to the public Published 5 April 2019 Executive summary Buying and selling a property is often the most expensive and important financial commitment a person makes in their life. Having access to reliable and good quality legal support really matters. It not only reduces stress and uncertainty,…
Colorado Lawyer Self-Assessment Program yields analytical insights
Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel started developing its lawyer self-assessment program more than two years ago, immediately after a seminal workshop on proactive, risk-based regulation at the 41st ABA National Conference of Professional Responsibility in May 2015. The new resource is a leading facet of a larger shift toward proactive management-based regulation, which aims to…
Transparency lies at the heart of Consumer Satisfaction
In January, the Legal Services Board (LSB) of England & Wales released its Regulatory Performance: Transitional Assessment Review looking at the transitional assessment of each legal services regulatory body against the LSB’s regulatory performance standards. The report found that it had “sufficient assurance that the regulatory bodies have met the minimum required level of performance…
Platform Economy in Legal Profession: An Empirical Study on Online Legal Service Providers in China
Platform economy breaks into the legal profession by pooling lawyers with different specializations into a simple user-friendly platform, consolidating the lower-tier supply side of the legal market and generating economy of scale. This paper is the very first empirical piece looking into China’s online legal service portals. It is found that, the intermediary functions of…