The Law Society has begun a 'passing-off' action against a group calling itself the Society of Lawyers.

The outcome cannot be predicted, but the action raises the key issue of how to ensure members of the public in search of legal services are protected.

Indirectly, it also raises the issue of increasing competition from non-lawyer providers of legal services.

The scale of this challenge has not been measured but reports of non-lawyer services -- covering a range of work including personal injury, debt, wills and immigration -- are increasingly frequent.The challenge is one that has made lawyers on the other side of the Atlantic increasingly worried.

The growth in the USA of 'legal technicians' -- providers of legal services outside the legal profession -- who work for much cheaper rates than lawyers, has been very substantial.Last year, following a two-year, nationwide study, the American Bar Association published a report which hardly set lawyers' minds at rest.

The special ABA commission concluded that 'when adequate protections for the public are in place, non-lawyers have important roles to perform in providing the public with access to justice'.

The commission was greatly influenced by evidence that lawyers were failing to meet the need for legal services.

It concluded that 'serious problems in getting access to the justice system create both consumer and professional pressure to modify rules of public protection in the interests of greater access'.

In effect, the commission was acknowledging the futility of any attempt to reverse the tide of non-lawyer competition.In the UK the 'legal technician' industry, although on the up, is much less developed than in the USA.

Therefore, there is still time to mount a strong challenge.The task for lawyers is first to identify the unmet legal need.

Without question it is out there.

Any MP will testify that legal problems predominate at surgeries.

And small businesses, in particular, need the protection that legal advice can provide.The next part of the task is to evolve creative and affordable ways of delivering the services.

The need for carefully targeted outreach work was never more important.Meanwhile, the Law Society can help by monitoring the non-lawyer industry and highlighting at every opportunity the risks of unregulated provision of legal services.