In The Press


Legal Services Bill gets royal assent
::: 2007-10-30 ::: The Lawyer :::
The Legal Service Bill has received royal assent today (30 October) following the House of Lords approving the Bill last Thursday (25 October). The Queen approving the bill has been welcomed by the legal profession, with the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Boards (BSB) both today content that the bill is in a form that will service the legal profession. Bar Council chair Geoffrey Vos QC, said the two years of campaigning has led to the right outcome. 

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Legal Services Bill gets House of Lords' blessing
::: 2007-10-29 ::: The Lawyer :::
The Bar Council and Law Society welcomed the House of Lords' approval of the Legal Services Bill last Thursday (25 October). Law Society president Andrew Holroyd said the bill, once it receives Royal Assent later this week, will create a foundation for the future of the legal profession. "The Legal Services Bill has changed much since it was first published last December, and changed for the better," said Holroyd. "We had many doubts then, but now we can safely say it provides a workable basis for achieving Sir David Clementi's aims of modernising the regulatory structure." 

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Legal Services Bill passes final hurdle
::: 2007-10-26 ::: The Lawyer :::
The House of Lords yesterday (25 October) approved the House of Commons’ amendments to the Legal Services Bill, with the legislation expected to receive Royal Assent next week. The bill passed the Lords hurdle after the ministers made concessions to uphold the independence of the legal profession. One major compromise was in relation to the appointments to the Legal Services Board, which will oversee the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The Board initially would have been appointed solely by the Lord Chancellor, which raised concerns that the legal profession would become politicised. 

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Whitehall retreat on ‘polluter pays’ levy
::: 2007-10-18 ::: Law Gazette :::
The government this week gave in to opposition efforts to stop the ‘polluter pays’ principle applying to lawyers cleared by the proposed Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). During the report stage of the Legal Services Bill, minister Bridget Prentice surprised MPs by accepting a Liberal Democrat amendment that means the OLC will not levy a charge when a complaint is not upheld, so long as the lawyer took ‘all reasonable steps’ to resolve the complaint under their internal complaints procedure. The government had planned to amend the Bill to allow the OLC to waive or reduce the fee. 

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Bill to regulate solicitors ‘risks another miners’ compensation fiasco’
::: 2007-10-15 ::: The Times :::
Plans for a shake-up of the legal profession, to be debated by MPs today, could lead to another fiasco like the miners’ compensation scheme, because trade unions would be exempt from consumer safeguards, Conservative MPs say. The Legal Services Bill, which creates a new regulatory framework for lawyers, will not cover trade unions who give legal advice. Jonathan Djanogly, the Tory justice spokesman, said: “The Government has agreed to exempt trade unions from its own legislation designed to protect consumers from receiving poor or unscrupulous legal advice. 

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Joint Committee’s review of the draft Legal Services Bill

The Joint Committee was appointed on 23 May to examine the draft Legal Service Bill.

The Joint Committee main concerns relate to:

  1. The level of involvement of the Secretary of State in the regulation of legal service as a treat to the independency of legal profession
  2. The Government’s approach to the alternative business structures (ABS) as a provider of legal services
  3. The emphasis on the ‘consumer interest’ rather than ‘public interest’ 


The Joint Committee’s report on draft Legal Service Bill sets out over fifty recommendations. In response for Government approach to the alternative business structure The Joint Committee suggested following the Clementi’s recommendations. That implies taking more gradual approach with partnership of different types of lawyers as a first stage. The more complex forms for ABS with potential conflict of interest would be next stages of removing the restrictions within the legal profession.