Conveyancing is one of the most common legal services people use in their lifetime, with more than one million homes bought and sold every year in the UK. However, there are some concerns about the conduct of some solicitors and the quality of service they are providing, with high proportions of insurance claims and complaints to the…
The legal needs of small businesses 2013-2017
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has published its third research report focusing on the legal needs of small businesses and looking at how their views have changed – and the legal services market has responded – since similar research was conducted in 2013 and in 2015. It is the largest ever survey of small firms’ interactions with the legal…
Prices of Individual Consumer Legal Services 2017: LSB research
The Legal Services Board (England and Wales) has published research which monitors the average prices that consumers pay for a number of common legal services. Understanding changes in prices over time helps determine whether there have been any improvements in the extent of competition between providers, and affordability and access to justice for consumers. It provides…
Report from the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being
A coalition of groups, including the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, have released a comprehensive report, The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change, aimed at addressing the problem of substance use and mental health disorders of lawyers. The report, by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, includes several dozen recommendations…
UK study probes access, quality and costs in family law
Most solicitors practising family law in England and Wales appear to be providing services in line with expected standards, according to recently published research. The study, carried out by Ecorys UK, found fairly strong agreement among consumers that their solicitor met the core competencies, particularly those relating to their professional manner. Just over one-half (58…
Research on client care letters
Research by Optimisa commissioned by the legal regulators in England and Wales finds that client care letters – letters sent to clients to explain the lawyer-client relationship when the lawyer is first instructed – are not sufficiently effective. The research identifies principles to help legal services providers better communicate with their clients. These principles are…
The legal needs of small businesses 2015 survey
Large scale quantitative survey of the experiences of 10,528 small businesses, showing the origin of legal problems that they face and their strategies for dealing with these problems, including where they seek advice and their experiences of doing so. Read the report on the LSB website
Innovations in the provision of legal services in the United States
In a report for the RAND Corporation, Neil Rickman and James M. Anderson present a framework for examining legal sector innovation in the United States. This framework is to aid policymakers in understanding the likely effects of innovations and the role of regulation in promoting or deterring innovation. RAND Corporation. “Innovations in the Provision of Legal Services in…
Costs of regulation in England and Wales
The Legal Services Board found little evidence on the costs of legal sector regulation, so in late 2014 it surveyed the regulated community and in 2015 it commissioned a study of the incremental costs of regulation – those incurred to comply with legal regulation. Categories of regulatory cost in the studies include: Requirements to…
Innovation in legal services
The Solicitors Regulation Authority surveyed 1,500 organisations and concluded: Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) have succeeded in promoting innovation and diversity; ABS Solicitors are 13-15 per cent more likely to introduce new legal services. Solicitors are, on average, more innovative than other regulated legal services organisations in terms of both managerial and organisational changes. 80 per…