No extra powers for LeO

The Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO’s) powers will not be extended to include unregulated providers, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has decided. The LSB had previously proposed the move to give consumers protection from non-regulated legal services providers. However, it dropped the proposal this week, following concerns raised by the Law Society and the Chartered Institute of legal Executives that it would give the unregulated sector a “veneer of legitimacy”, and that different standards might be applied to the regulated and non-regulated sectors.