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Barristers and solicitors should provide the average costs of their services online and their regulators publish more accessible details of complaints and enforcement action, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel.
The Panel said that legal services are ‘far behind other regulators’ and identified a ‘clear need for improved access to basic data’ provided in a transparent and ‘user-friendly’ manner.
It recommended that the frontline regulators – the Bar Standards Board and Solicitors’ Regulation Authority – carry out mystery shopping exercises to check the quality of service in ‘high risk’ areas.
Panel chair, Elisabeth Davies, said: ‘More needs to be done to empower consumers and encourage them to make informed decisions. Information, simply presented, at the time of need, is one tool that can be used by legal services regulators.’
Barristers and solicitors should provide the average costs of their services online and their regulators publish more accessible details of complaints and enforcement action, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel.
The Panel said that legal services are ‘far behind other regulators’ and identified a ‘clear need for improved access to basic data’ provided in a transparent and ‘user-friendly’ manner.
It recommended that the frontline regulators – the Bar Standards Board and Solicitors’ Regulation Authority – carry out mystery shopping exercises to check the quality of service in ‘high risk’ areas.
Panel chair, Elisabeth Davies, said: ‘More needs to be done to empower consumers and encourage them to make informed decisions. Information, simply presented, at the time of need, is one tool that can be used by legal services regulators.’
The Chair of the Bar reports back
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Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, examines the forensic science underpinning hair drug testing, its evidential scope and limitations, and why it remains the gold standard for evidencing patterns of drug use in family proceedings
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At the start of her term, Chair of the Bar 2026 Kirsty Brimelow KC set out a series of priorities for the year ahead. One of those priorities was children in the justice system
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Reviewed by Daniel Barnett
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