The proposed legal services board (LSB) should only intervene with frontline professional bodies when they are failing to discharge their duties, the Law Society's regulation board has told the government.

In its response to the legal services White Paper, the board recognised 'a strong case' for the LSB so long as it operates as a 'light-touch supervisory regulator'.


It continued: 'It should only intervene if it appears that a frontline regulator is failing to discharge its responsibilities effectively. It should not second-guess the approach taken by front-line regulators.'


Peter Williamson, chairman of the board, said: 'The new statutory structure for regulating legal services needs to be based on the principle that the reformed frontline regulators [which have separated regulatory and representative functions] can be trusted to get on with their job, subject only to light-touch oversight from the proposed LSB. If it duplicated the work of frontline regulators, the result would be delay, confusion and substantial additional costs.'


The Law Society's new consumer complaints board has also submitted a response to the White Paper, and said the planned office for legal complaints (OLC) must make a real effort to connect with consumers.


Chairman Professor Shamit Saggar said: 'We, and the OLC when it is established, need to reach out to consumers who lack the skills or the confidence to complain when they get a raw deal from lawyers.'


The board also called for limitations on dealing with complaints by affected third parties - such as the beneficiary of an estate where the client is the executor - to be lifted, and said the OLC should have the power to obtain information it needs. It gave the example of a divorcing woman who believes her husband's solicitor has information that would help her complain about her own solicitor. Currently the husband's consent would be required.


The board urged the government to bear the OLC's start-up costs and was confident that the Law Society's consumer complaints service 'will be ready to form the foundation of the OLC'.