The government is to meet personal injury solicitors over concerns that new doorstep-selling regulations could invalidate many conditional fee agreements (CFAs) signed over the past six months.

The new regime, the Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc Regulations 2008, came into force on 1 October. They require a contract for goods or services signed in the consumer’s home or workplace to include a seven-day cancellation clause.

The cooling-off rule covers both solicited and unsolicited visits. Amanda Stevens, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, says that injured clients are often seen at home. While the regulations’ impact on CFAs may be ‘the law of unintended consequences’. Firms are now going back through their CFAs to check where they had been signed, she said. APIL has sent members a briefing note and requested a meeting with the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR). A department spokeswoman said it would listen to APIL’s concerns.

Mark Stobbs, head of legal policy at the Law Society, said this area has been the subject of a consultation in relation to future EU directives. In its response, the Law Society had said that, as a regulated profession, solicitors should be exempt from these regulations.

The Law Society is currently preparing a practice note. In the meantime, Stobbs advised practitioners that the regulations apply when entering an agreement with a client outside the solicitor’s usual place of business: ‘Failure to comply with them is an offence and may also result in the agreement being unenforceable.’

Clients who require work to begin immediately after the signing of an agreement should sign a written waiver of the cooling-off period, he advised.