LSB instructs regulators to publish information on law firms' quality

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has instructed the profession's regulators to gather and publish information which indicates the quality (or lack thereof) of law firms. This will include passing on lawyers' data, including evidence of any past disciplinary action that is held on professional registers, to legal comparison websites.

The announcement follows a wide-ranging review conducted by the LSB. It had also accepted recommendations from the Legal Services Consumer Panel which, as reported by Legal Futures, included the use of 'mystery' customers. Regulators will also be required to prove to the LSB that evidence has been collected (through liaising with bodies like the Legal Ombudsman) on areas where the quality of legal services is seen to be at risk.

Chris Kenny, chief executive of the LSB, said: "Achieving innovative, high-quality service for consumers is at the heart of effective modern regulation. That demands sharper identification of issues, more targeted intervention using a wide range of tools and greater transparency about the results, rather than the old approach of prescriptive blanket rules. We're delighted that the consultation revealed broad support for that approach. We're similarly not setting blanket rules for the approved regulators, but we will expect them to be able to show through their work on regulatory effectiveness how they’re making progress."