negligence alert over law firms' web sitesBy Jeremy FlemingThe Law Society's ruling Council is to consider guidelines for solicitors using e-commerce and e-mail amid fears that sloppy Web sites could cost solicitors their livelihoods.The Society's e-commerce working party has been investigating Web sites and is alarmed that competition between some sites gives rise to firms trying to undercut each other, which could result in 'misinformed customers and more complaints to the Office for Supervision of Solicitors'.Competition is in evidence at some Web sites offering advice on divorce and wills - areas where on-line advice is established - but a spokeswoman said the worst offenders were non-lawyers' Web sites offering legal advice.

The spokeswoman said the working party hoped publication of guidelines would avoid the need to recommend increases in solicitors' insurance premiums, which the committee had considered as a precaution against a potential surge of client complaints.According to advice from the Society's family law committee, the majority of do-it-yourself divorce Web sites do not clearly highlight the dangers of lodging proceedings in unsuitable cases, such as divorces involving children or financial issues.

Failure to take proper advice before beginning divorce proceedings can lead to loss of pension rights, and in some cases, if one party obtains a decree absolute and then remarries, he or she may lose all further rights of financial redress against the former partner.There is also concern over fraud and undue influence relating to the production of wills over the Internet.

The working party stresses the importance of instructions for wills being taken orally by a solicitor in person except when the client is well-known to the solicitor involved.The first stage will come next week, when the Council considers the proper wording to be included by solicitors in e-mails.

Guidelines for solicitors advising in specific practice areas are to be drafted this month and some will be ready by June.

This includes divorce, conveyancing, wills, personal injury, employment, environment and children.

Roger Bamber, the partner at East Anglian firm Mills & Reeve who wrote divorce.co.uk - a Web site offering information but not advice - welcomed the moves.

'With these guidelines,' he said, 'we can move forward more confidently into e-commerce.

At the moment there is a vacuum there, and uncertainty affects both us and our clients.'Clive Seddon, IT disputes specialist from City firm Masons, said: 'The Law Society should engage in the widest possible consultation throughout different areas of the profession before drafting guidelines.' He said e-commerce and on-line legal services should be embraced for the opportunities they present, and warned that those opportunities 'should only be inhibited in so far as regulation was absolutely necessary'.