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ARTICLE · 28 JUNE 2006

The Draft Legal Services Bill

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP
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The proposed reform of legal services has already had a long history, culminating in the recent publication of the draft Legal Services Bill. In this article we give a brief overview of the Bill and assess the early reaction to it.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Sarah Clover
Sarah Clover
Lydia Hassall
Lydia Hassall

The proposed reform of legal services has already had a long history, culminating in the recent publication of the draft Legal Services Bill. In this article we give a brief overview of the Bill and assess the early reaction to it.

Introduction

Following publication of Sir David Clementi’s Report in December 2004 and the government White Paper in October 2005, the draft Legal Services Bill was published on 24 May 2006. For the first time, the draft Bill provides the detail of how the reforms set out in the White Paper will be implemented.

The reforms

The draft Bill establishes a new framework for the regulation of legal services in England and Wales which seeks to address the three main areas in which Sir David recommended reform: the regulatory framework; the complaints system; and the restrictive nature of current business structures. To quote Lord Falconer, the reforms represent "a real watershed".

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