And the band played on regardless…

You really couldn’t make this up!

I’ve just read a couple of articles in ’The Lawyer’ magazine about the effects of the Legal Services Act 2007 on the industry.

At the risk of being boring, Section 1 of the Act defines eight regulatory objectives, chief amongst which are:

• Protecting and promoting the public interest;
• Improving access to justice;
• Protecting and promoting the interests of consumers of legal services;
• Promoting competition in the provision of legal services;
• Encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession;
• Increasing public understanding of the citizen’s legal rights and duties;

So in five whole years, what progress?

Judge for yourself, starting with this. I read that the first batch of three businesses which are structured differently to the traditional legal partnership have been approved. One is Co Op Law. So, that’s…then..three – THREE – in five years. Wow, that is some big bang isn’t it? Talk about game changing!

So – what else has the legal profession managed to do in this new dawn to “promote competition, improve access to justice and promote the interests of consumers”?

Well (and you have to laugh) not a lot.  Which is kind of totally unsurprising.  But don’t take my word for it – just read this review of a recent Legal Services Board (LSB) report published in the Solicitors profession trade paper – “The Lawyer”:

“the profession still had very few measures of quality and that complaints were rising, as was price, despite falling demand for legal services. This was backed by surveys that showed that most people still chose a lawyer based on a recommendation rather than according to comparative data because of a lack of transparency – the feature of competitive markets in other business.

Cross said one highlight from the report was that the industry had come through the recession.

He said: “The law has been resilient during a time when the economy is in such a state. People need advice and there is a ‘stickiness’ in the market. The information is not there for consumers to shop around. What’s good for the profession is not for consumers when they need the service more than ever.”

First, very many congratulations to the profession for ‘bucking the trend’ (so now even the trend gets bucked by lawyers!) and coming out of recession before anyone else. They have raised their prices in sympathy with the declining state of most of their client’s finances over the same period. Perhaps we shouldn’t tick off ‘Promoting the interests of the consumers of legal services’ just yet then.

Secondly, congratulations are also due for raising prices in an environment where they are also providing a declining level of service with complaints rising. Perhaps we shouldn’t tick off ‘maintaining adherence to professional principles’ just yet then either.

Thirdly, congratulations are also due for having the courage (or could that be cynicism) to raise prices in a declining marketplace. Perhaps we shouldn’t tick off ‘improving access to justice’ just yet then.

Fourthly, well done that despite all of their promises to the contrary, they have still managed to be guilty of a lack of transparency, the fundamental prerequisite of a healthy competitive marketplace. Perhaps we shouldn’t tick off ‘Promoting competition’ just yet then either.

So – same old issues then. The legal profession has held the monopoly on legal advice and holds the key to the gateway for all of us to access the legal system, which is our right. So far it would appear that that the Legal profession have been highly successful in preventing the march of competition from impacting on their bank balances in any meaningful way. The Legal Services Act has made little or no impact after five years. With the Law Society and its members with their hands firmly on the ship’s wheel, it’s unlikely that any changes will improve access, increase the quality of services or promote transparency allowing customers to make a valid buying decision on legal services in the same way they do everything else.