The oversight regulator has urged regulators to do more to help legal comparison websites, as well as to create a central database for complaints about firms.
The Legal Services Board yesterday published what it called ‘clear expectations’ for regulators to improve consumer information and drive choice in the legal services market.
The work is the culmination of two years of consultation and debate since the Competition and Markets Authority inspected the sector and identified what it said was a continuing lack of transparency and knowledge about what clients should expect of their lawyer.
The LSB’s latest statement sets out areas that regulators such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority will be expected to address.
The statement has few new specific requirements beyond activity to support public legal education and contributing to cross-sector initiatives such as the Legal Choices website. But on increased use of comparison sites – one option back by the CMA – the LSB said regulators would be ‘expected to consider how to facilitate the use of tools that could provide useful and comparable information to consumers’. This might also include providing more information for review websites or creating a centralised database.
Relevant information must be ‘freely available’ to third parties wanting to publish information and regulators will be expected to ensure clients are aware of helpful comparison sites. Regulators will also be expected to take steps to ensure information about firms’ disciplinary records and published decisions made by the legal ombudsman are available in at least one single location online.
The Law Society said that issues around the transparency and regulation of digital comparison tools (DCTs) must be addressed before they are relied upon as trustworthy sources of information.
Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: ‘Solicitors comply with rigorous transparency rules and the LSB places more expectations on regulated professions, but DCTs operating in the legal market are not subject to similar measures or regulatory oversight from the LSB or other frontline line regulators.
‘This is a real loophole that needs addressing in order to ensure the information is not distorted and for consumers and solicitors to build trust in these tools.’
The Law Society welcomed the LSB’s recommendation that any increased transparency requirements must be tested with clients first.
