Attack On All Fronts?

The Legal Services Bill is intended to make sweeping changes to legal services regulation and complaints handling. However, some may regard the new legislation as a missed opportunity if it fails to address a number of problems with the existing regulatory framework. In this article we examine some of the difficulties faced by the profession in responding to complaints, and whether the proposed legislation addresses these difficulties.

Under the regime proposed by the Legal Services Bill, set out in more detail in our lead article, a new Office for Legal Complaints ("OLC") will handle and determine all inadequate professional service complaints made against solicitors. However, complaints relating to professional misconduct will continue to be dealt with by Front Line Regulators (for solicitors, the Law Society).