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National Consumer Council

This episode of the Law Report focuses on how consumers view the legal profession and whether the Legal Services Bill can improve this. This is an update level course.



Consumer organisations have campaigned for some time for legal services reform. They have argued that until there is independent regulation, including independent complaints-handling, consumers will continue to regard the professions as only acting in their own interests.

They welcomed both the Clementi review of legal services, published in 2004, and the subsequent Legal Services Bill as significant steps in the right direction. But they have also pointed out the need for lawyers to improve their day-to-day customer service and keep pace with innovations in other service industries.

The information in this podcast represented the legal position when it was recorded on 03/05/2007

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Aims and Outcomes

This podcast explores the provisions of the Legal Services Bill in detail from the consumer perspective. It will be useful for anyone who wants to understand more about how consumers interact with the legal profession.

The interview lasts for 33 minutes. It will take you a further 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. You will need to get 50 per cent of the questions right to gain your CPD.

Learning outcomes

After listening to the interview, you will understand:

  • Why there are so many consumer complaints about legal services
  • What consumers want from their lawyer
  • Why it’s so important to have independent regulation of the profession
  • What the profession can do to start improving its customer service
  • The role and remit of the new Office for Legal Complaints
  • How consumers are likely to interact with legal services and particularly alternative business structures in future.
Lord Whitty
Lord Whitty

Lord Whitty has been chair of the National Consumer Council since 2006.

As Minister for Transport in the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions, from 1998 to 2001, he was responsible for users of public transport services and for motorists. As Minister for food, farming and sustainable energy in Defra, from 2001 until 2005, he had responsibility for: policy and regulation of production; distribution and quality of food - including the role of the supermarkets in the food chain; and more sustainable uses of energy, including the delivery of improvements to those in fuel poverty.

He became deputy vice-president of the Law Society in 2001, and vice-president and chair of the Society's Main Board in 2002. As president of the Society from July 2003 to July 2004, he played a leading part in the development of the Society's response to Sir David Clementi's Review of the Regulatory Framework for Legal Services in England and Wales and in the Council's decision to create much greater separation between the Law Society's regulatory and representative functions.

He takes a strong personal interest in issues of sustainability, access to services for low-income groups (particularly for housing, education and transport, and financial services), and corporate accountability for social and environmental impacts on consumers and the wider community.