New report demonstrates consensus on the need to reform legal services regulation in Scotland
The Law Society of Scotland has long advocated for a modern agile regulatory system and has welcomed the high level of agreement among responses within a Scottish Government report on improving regulatory processes.
The Scottish Government has today (8 July) published its analysis of responses to its recent consultation on reforming the regulation of legal services.
The report, Legal Services Regulation Reform in Scotland: Consultation Analysis, and the published responses confirm that there is strong consensus from all respondents on reforms to the processes for regulating legal services and that professional bodies should maintain a role in complaint handling.
The Law Society has backed reforms to the way legal services are regulated, but has cautioned against the creation of new regulatory bodies as unnecessary and expensive.
Responding to the analysis, the President of the Law Society, Murray Etherington said: “The report shows widespread support for the reforms suggested by the Law Society of Scotland such as introducing entity regulation, retaining a role for professional bodies in the complaints system and recognising the important role of the Lord President and Court of Session in safeguarding the independence of the regulation of the legal profession.
“The regulatory system needs to change because of unnecessarily complex processes and outdated procedures from 40-year old legislation. The system for handling legal complaints in particular is cumbersome, complex, and costs too much. Meanwhile, rigid regulatory processes restrict our ability to step in quickly to protect the public interest. The Scottish Government should focus on addressing those issues on which there is consensus among all respondents, and introduce changes which could be progressed quickly through the Scottish Parliament.
“We are committed to continuing to work with the Scottish Government and others in the legal services regulation space to modernise the regulatory system and protect the public interest.”
The lay Convener of the Law Society’s independent Regulatory Committee, David Gordon added: “The Regulatory Committee welcomes the consensus on proposed changes to how the complaints processes could be improved. We are already implementing many of these, where current legislation allows.
“The independent Regulatory Committee includes 50% lay people and we are further strengthening the consumer voice in the regulation of Scottish solicitors by creating a consumer panel. We encourage the Scottish Government to create more permissive legislation which would increase our ability to modernise the regulatory framework.”
Background
The Scottish Government’s independent review in 2017 concluded that Scotland is home to a well-educated, well respected legal profession with a high degree of public trust and that there was ‘little evidence of significant wrongdoing in the current model’. Independent research carried out in 2021 has also highlighted the exceptionally high satisfaction rates of solicitors’ clients, illustrating confidence among the public in the work of the legal profession.
In its response to the Scottish Government consultation last December the Law Society urged a radical overhaul of the complaints system, which is widely seen as failing consumers and the profession, by moving to a system which is transparent, quick, agile and treats all parties fairly. The Society has also proposed action to tackle the unregulated legal services market which puts consumers at risk and has said that allowing cross-border regulation would position Scotland as a more attractive jurisdiction in which legal firms can be based and offer the chance to grow inward investment and jobs.
Legal Services Regulation
As part of our strategy, we set out our ambition to secure a modern, flexible and enabling legislative framework to improve legal services regulation - read more about our work.
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