Single regulator: look before you leap

When Legal Services Board chair David Edmonds suggested that all existing legal regulators should become a single organisation, the frontline regulators including The Bar Council and SRA, did not have an epiphany and agree. But some have been warmed to the suggestion more than others.

Looking at legal services from a consumer perspective, the present system of regulation is complex. And, of course, the same applies with regard to complaints about legal services. Speaking at the Law Society's Private Client Section conference in July, chief legal ombudsman Adam Sampson made it clear he would like to expand his empire. He wants to have the jurisdiction to deal with complaints about legal services where he has no 'bite' at present, including unregulated will writers, for example.

It would be great if Sampson and his team of ombudsmen could right the injustices of the unregulated market. But while I understand the arguments about making life simpler for consumers who wish to complain, there is an inherent danger for solicitors (and indeed the Bar) in this direction of travel.

Single regulation of legal services would blur the lines between those of us who are trained, regulated and insured, and those who are not at all or not to the same standard. Accordingly, there is a risk it would diminish the solicitors profession and the Bar. The multi-tiered '¨legal profession is a product of history that should not be turned on its head.

Crucially, the multi-tiered legal profession that we have offers a real choice to consumers. So what we should be doing is not confusing and misleading consumers by making all legal services regulated by one body. Such a move would have the risk of causing many to believe that all providers of legal services are the same.

Rather, we should help consumers understand and therefore make distinctions about the different offering of legal services in the marketplace. In doing that, our separate regulatory and complaints procedures will become less confusing as it would be clear to a consumer at the outset of a matter what framework is being signed up to and, indeed, what the alternatives are.

As solicitors we need to push our collective 'brand' and all that is positive about it, namely our long history of acting in the best interest of our clients, our robust legal education and training, and the redress that is available in the small percentage of cases where we fall below the required professional standards. SJ

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