UCL review of legal services regulation
In 2018, University College London (UCL) launched an independent review of legal services regulation.
The three-stage review focuses on the issues raised by the 2016 Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Legal Services market study which found that:
- competition in legal services for individual consumers and small businesses is not working well
-
there’s not enough information available on price, quality and service to help people who need legal support choose the best option
Read more about the CMA’s study and recommendations
Our view
First stage of the review
In February 2019, we contributed to the first stage of the review.
We believe that improvements should be made to the current framework and we should not introduce further legislative reform.
Second stage of the review
In March 2019, the review moved to the second stage and Professor Mayson (the UCL professor who’s leading the review) published two working papers:
We believe it’s not clear whether the regulatory models mentioned in the working papers would lead to a simpler alternative. Our concern is that they may:
- cause more regulatory uncertainty
- undermine the rule of law, the administration of justice and the UK’s attractiveness as a world-leading jurisdiction
We also believe certain features from the current framework which support the rule of law should be kept, such as: