Computer systems are a bit like washing machines -- useful when working properly but monumentally frustrating and potentially costly when going wrong.Recently, the Law Society has found itself in the information technology equivalent of having to mop up a flooded kitchen floor and get a plumber in to fiddle with the pipes.The Society's new £2.5 million computer system, Regis, has been experiencing problems to the point where it has been suggested that the Society could not fulfil its regulatory functions.

The problems have caused lengthy delays in processing practising certificate applications and investment business certificates.So serious have been the allegations -- with Chancery Lane's two highest ranking elected officers hinting at the possibility of senior Society officials having misled them -- that a special inquiry team has been set up to investigate the events surrounding implementation of Regis.It is to be chaired by Society Council member Robin ap Cynan and includes two other Council members, Kamlesh Bahl and David Baker.

Crucially, the inquiry will also have on board the two main critics of the way Regis was implemented, Society President Martin Mears and Vice-President Robert Sayer.Indeed, Mr Sayer indicated this week that he would encourage his inquiry colleagues not to dither over their investigation.

He will push for them to appoint as soon as possible a team of consultants who will produce 'an independent and impartial' analysis.

That report would ideally be presented to the Society's Council in April.But exactly what is Regis? The concept is somewhat reminiscent of the omniscient machine, Hal, in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001, A Space Odyssey.

However, there ends any similarity with the computer that went mad, maintain Society computer boffins.Typically for the IT world, Regis is an acronym.

It stands for regulatory information system and forms one of the main pillars of the Society's latest corporate information strategy, which began in 1991.By any definition, it is a huge and complex system, designed to support the Society's responsibilities in relation to training, qualification and admission and entitlement to practise.

As one Society staff member puts it: 'Regis looks at the complete life cycles of both individual solicitors and law firms.'Perhaps somewhat ironically in the the light of recent controversy, the driving force behind Regis has been simplicity.

The underlying concept, say Society technicians, was to design a highly flexible system.Regis is essentially a large information pool.

Where, in the past, data such as solicitors' addresses would have been kept in 70 different database areas, it is now collected in one area.One of the main benefits of Regis, claim Society officials, is that it will be far more adaptable than past systems.

In theory, Regis will allow the Society to break out of the cycle of having to rewrite programmes to keep pace with advancing technology.

The Wang system which Regis replaced was seven years old -- a pensioner in terms of IT life cycles -- and, since its installation, had had about 900 different programmes tacked on.Despite t he recent wrangling over the issuing of practising certificates, those responsible for Regis maintain the system has been for the most part quietly taking over its intended responsibilities.

They reckon that currently between 60% and 70% of the Society's regulatory functions are being covered by the new system.And they continue to work to their original timetable of having all the regulatory functions covered by Regis by the first quarter of next year.In addition, they maintain that firms are generally supportive of the revised system of sending one form per firm instead of forms to all individual solicitors.

Under the old system, the Society distributed about 100,000 forms for practising certificate and investment business certificate renewal.

Under the Regis firm-based system, that figure has been reduced to 19,000.Many elements of the Regis system were implemented with little fanfare or media attention about 18 months ago.

But two bugs in the system have lent notoriety to Regis.

One bug caused a five-week delay in sending out the new practising certificate forms.This set back the whole process.

And a second bug resulted in Regis performing slower than expected when processing applications from larger firms; practising certificates were delayed by a further three weeks.Society technicians say all the bugs were eradicated by the middle of last December and that Regis is well on course to clear the backlog of practising certificate applications by the middle of March 1996.

As of last week, officials had issued more than 30,000 practising certificates and they were grinding out another 2000 to 3000 a day.However, there are still important question marks hanging over the implementation of Regis.

Not the least of which is the question of whether elected Society officers and Council members were given a rose-tinted version of the problems affecting the system.Mr Sayer is adamant that the gravity of the situation was not reflected in the reports of the management board to the strategy committee.He also maintains that Society officials rashly ignored expert advice on providing contingency plans in case Regis failed to deliver on time.For its part, the Society claims it decided not to implement fall-back recommendations on the basis of cost, maintaining that suggested plans would have triggered at least another £1 million of expenditure.

Mr Sayer is unconvinced, claiming that it was more a factor of 'macho pride' and 'face saving' that prompted the Society to try to meet the original Regis start date at all costs.Regis could also develop into a talking point in the debate over the relationship between the elected officers and the Secretary-General.

Mr Sayer is already alleging that the way in which funds were transferred freely between budgets to bolster the Regis project last year is a further indication that too much power is vested in Chancery Lane's top bureaucrat.