The public has faith in legal services providers and rarely questions their expertise, but most cannot distinguish between a qualified solicitor and an unregulated practitioner, research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has suggested.

Preliminary results of a focus group study of 40 consumers indicated that users of legal services are ‘generally satisfied’ with the service they receive, but are not always ‘informed consumers’.

Purchasers of legal services have little understanding of who has handled their case, and do not know where to complain if things go wrong, the project found. They are also unaware of any possible regulatory risks when the legal services market is opened up to new providers.

Consumers expect all legal services providers to be ‘appropriately skilled, qualified and ­regulated’, the report said, but have ‘little knowledge’ of the regulatory system.