David Abbott has recently completed his term with the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP). In this valedictory blog he highlights the Panel’s recent report on Regulatory Leadership on Access to Justice.
The end of my six year term coincided almost exactly with the launch of an important LSCP research report on Regulatory Leadership on Access to Justice. I’m proud to have played a part in initiating and driving this research, which was carried out with passion and insight by a team from Nottingham Law School.
One of the strengths of the LSCP model is that it harnesses input from a wide range of backgrounds to advocate for consumers. My perspective is more from an access to justice viewpoint than a traditional consumer advocate, by which I mean I am focused on people who are outside the legal services system as well as those who are inside but looking for the best value for money service. This is informed by my current role with the charity The Free Representation Unit, which uses volunteer lawyers to take on clients who otherwise would have to navigate complex legal proceedings completely on their own.
During my time with the Panel we have wrestled with the fact that the legal services market fails on its own terms due to the factors identified by the Competition & Markets Authority as long ago as 2016. Factors such as a lack of price transparency and a lack of objective quality indicators. It also fails in absolute terms because as the LSB explained in its State of Legal Services Report in November 2020: “… 3.6 million adults in England and Wales have an unmet legal need involving a dispute every year”. The existence of ‘legal advice deserts’ has been extensively documented by The Law Society and others.
The Panel works constantly to produce consumer insight for the whole sector through the annual Tracker Survey. It also responds to consultations to put the consumer perspective in focus.
But we also realised that a more strategic approach was required to really focus the legal service regulators on consumer needs. Firstly we published the Consumer Focused Regulation in Legal Services report. We produced this report because it seemed to us that the regulators didn’t have a structured approach to consumer interests. For example, they often introduce regulatory change without an evaluation plan, or don’t evidence the need for change from a consumer perspective. This report left regulators in no doubt how to put consumer interests at the heart of decision making and the Panel is pleased that some regulators are using the report to bring about change.
At the start of my term the Panel discussed how we could address the crisis in unmet legal need through the regulatory system. Under the Legal Services Act 2007, the LSB and the regulators must act in a way that improves access to justice. That is a powerful driver at the heart of the legal system. As our research went on to show, no other part of the system, apart from the Lord Chancellor, has any duty to uphold and promote access to justice. Therefore, the second more strategic intervention is the publication of the comprehensive report that shows the regulators what they can do practically to meet their access to justice duty. The report is practical and shows what already works in other jurisdictions.
The access to justice gap cannot be ignored, our society only works if there is the rule of law. If millions of people can’t obtain legal support the rule of law is a fiction. The legal service regulators can’t fix the justice gap on their own, but they must meet their duty. I believe that the LSCP has given them the wherewithal to do that.
I wish my colleagues on the LSCP well in their continued efforts to argue for the needs of legal consumers. I’m pleased to have played my role in that over the last six years.
Blog by David Abbott, former LSCP Panel Member