The report ‘Reforming Legal Services: Regulation beyond the echo chambers’, published this week, is the outcome of a two-year independent review, which consulted more than 340 parties. It has been submitted to the Lord Chancellor.
It recommends
a single, sector-wide regulator of all legal providers, and a single point of
entry for complaints and redress mechanism for consumers and small businesses.
This would include providers who are currently unregulated, as well as
technology-based legal services.
Prof Mayson,
of UCL Centre for Ethics & Law, said: ‘Many people assume that all
providers of legal services are in some way regulated and that relevant
protection is available, but they are mistaken.
‘There are
many providers of legal advice and assistance, beyond regulated qualified
lawyers, providing services from wills and estate administration to online
advice and bespoke documents. The current regulatory structure provides an
incomplete and limited framework for legal services that is not able in the
near-term and beyond to meet the demands and expectations placed on it,
particularly with the emergence and rapid development of alternative providers
and lawtech.’
He notes that
a YouGov survey this year of nearly 30,000 adults found that 60% of them had a
legal issue in the past four years―of the two thirds who received help, only
half received it from a regulated lawyer. Moreover, he said the current
arrangement of ten regulatory bodies plus an oversight regulator was cumbersome
and confusing for the public.
Instead,
regulation should be targeted and proportionate, he said. Reserved activities
should be reviewed and replaced with services that require prior authorisation.
Low-risk services would only require registration. Consumers would be given as
a minimum the protection of indemnity insurance, performance standards, access
to an ombudsman and redress for complaints.
The report
addresses the rapid rise of lawtech, which is revolutionising many areas of
law. Prof Mayson recommends that lawtech be defined as ‘legal services’ with an
appropriate person registered as a ‘provider’.
