The Legal Services Board (LSB), the super-regulator which oversees the Law Society and Bar Council, has set a maximum potential fine of £28m for the Law Society if it does not reach its targets on complaints-handling.
The Bar Council could be fined up to £10m. The figure of £28m is reached by multiplying each of the 112,500 practising solicitors in England and Wales by £250. The LSB could also impose a fine of £10m, or a levy based on a rate of £5,000 per entity regulated.
The potential fines are set out in the LSB consultation paper, Compliance and Enforcement. However, the LSB acknowledges that “it would not be appropriate for a failure...to lead to that regulatory arm being further disadvantaged by a budgetary reduction”.
Russell Wallman, director of government relations at the Law Society, says: “The Legal Services Board’s proposals about maximum level of fines are misconceived.
They draw a false analogy between utility companies—which are commercial bodies operating for profit—and the regulation of legal services, which is a non-commercial activity carried out
