Law firms should be forced to publish details of complaints and prices, consumer pane

[Legal Beagles]

Law firms should be required by their regulators to publish details of complaints and average prices on their websites, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. The panel said it would also like to see “more sector-specific information” about legal services, such as litigation outcomes and success rates.The lack of information to help consumers choose…
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[Amethyst]

Re: Law firms should be forced to publish details of complaints and prices, consumer

We're doing what we can on LBcompare xxx


Recommendations
Publish collated data
1.

Approved Regulators should do more to bring together regulatory information in

a meaningful way. A starting point would be to link basic and conduct information.


2.

The SRA should remove the restrictions it has placed on sharing basic data. At present, comparison websites need to sign up to the Consumer Panel’s self assessment standard before applying to the SRA for access. The Panel’s standard was not intended for this.

3.
Approved Regulators should make the collation and publication of first-tier complaints a regulatory requirement and mandate for its publication.

4.
Approved Regulators should publish the full details of enforcement sanctions,including the names and location of firms or individuals reprimanded.

5.
The Legal Ombudsman should publish all ombudsman decisions in full. Collate additional data
6.

Approved Regulators should commission research on quality of advice and publish this research in full. Lessons should be learnt from how other sectors have tackled comparable gaps in knowledge.

7.
The SRA and BSB should carry out mystery or shadow shopping exercises on

quality of advice in high risk areas and publish their research findings in full.
This type of research has the potential to offer meaningful insight into quality of
advice.
8.
The LSB and Approved Regulators need to be more vocal about price disclosure and transparency.

9.
Approved Regulators should require the publication of the average cost of legal services on the websites of approved firms and individuals, and mandate that they provide this information on request. This should also include the average cost of disbursements.

10.
Approved Regulators should understand and research barriers to price transparency in their respective areas and publish the research/study in full.
11.

If there are contractual provisions or gag clauses which create a barrier to the

release of price information the LSB and the Approved Regulators should
explore how this could be changed.
12.
Approved Regulators should consult on how they might present and
contextual ise complaint data prior to its publication.

13.
The quality of legal advice needs to be better understood and actively
monitored. This should involve academic research and build on existing good
practice techniques such as file review and peer review
14.
The LSB should provide guidance on how the smaller Approved Regulators might gather and publish information on quality.

15.
The Legal Ombudsman should publish a contextualised summary and analysis of cases decided informally