LSB welcomes fee-charging McKenzie Friends

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has written to the Legal Services Consumer Panel welcoming its report on fee-charging McKenzie Friends but adds a note of caution.

The LSB has recognised that the Panel's report is a 'timely and important' contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the transformation of legal services as economic conditions and judicial practice begin to blur the traditional hard and fast boundaries between the regulated and the unregulated parts of the legal sector.

However, the LSB believes that safeguards are required before promoting fee-charging McKenzie Friends as a legitimate feature of the evolving legal services market.

It is the LSB's belief that there is a risk McKenzie Friends may be misleadingly perceived as offering a service underpinned by the same standards and consumer protections that are provided by a regulated professional.

Responding to the specific points addressed, the LSB believes that the interpretation of case law and statute is a matter for the courts and anticipate that the report's findings will be relevant to a broad range of work, notably but far from exclusively, the current work on cost and complexity of regulation.

Legal Services Board chairman, Sir Michael Pitt, said: "I welcome the contribution this report makes to the ongoing debate on legal services reform. We believe that the report offers timely consideration of an area of increasing significance and note in particular the contribution that these services can make to improving access to justice.

"I support the suggestion that fee-charging McKenzie Friends should be recognised as a legitimate feature of the evolving legal services market. However, safeguards are necessary including the issuing of guidance and greater clarity regarding their role and limitations. Consideration should also be given to accreditation, the formation of a trade association and the availability of indemnity insurance."

The LSB has also written to Mrs Justice Asplin DBE, chair of the judicial working group tasked with considering the report.