The Legal Services Board – which oversees a range of approved ‘front line’ regulators – hit out in a report issued today at a ‘lack of understanding’ and of ‘consumer engagement’. It also criticised poor communication and information sharing between the regulators covered in the report.

Complaints supremo

The board went on to express concern that the front-line regulators were not providing sufficient data to the sector-wide complaints supremo, the Legal Ombudsman.
Five bodies fell under the LSB’s microscope, but notably, the two main bodies – the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board – were not covered, with a review of their performance scheduled for publication early next year.

Unacceptable approach

The regulators covered in today’s report were the Association of Costs Lawyers (costs draftsmen), the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Council of Licensed Conveyancers, and the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which oversees ecclesiastical law matters and practitioners.
LSB chairman David Edmonds said it was ‘of significant concern that some regulators continue to question the need to know more about consumers and how they use legal services’. He maintained that ‘such an approach would be unacceptable from a regulator of any other sector and I believe should be unacceptable in legal services regulation’.