Consumers influence legal service quality

Legal services quality control may soon face alterations, following a consumer opinion survey.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) yesterday received a report from the Legal Services Consumer Panel, which investigated the impact of quality schemes on consumers.

In the report, the panel were asked to identify characteristics that voluntary quality schemes must have to give consumers confidence in legal services and then measure existing schemes using this criteria.

It is hoped that the findings will allow legal providers to fine tune their services to offer consumers tailored assistance.

Chris Kenny, LBS chief executive, commented: "We will be considering [these results] as part of our work to improve the ability of consumers to choose the appropriate legal services to meet their needs, as well as to judge their quality upon delivery."

In the report, it was suggested that quality markers needed improving before consumers could use them with confidence.

The panel founds that the use of methods such as spot checks, greater lay input and better information provision from certain companies could improve consumer confidence.

Published by Kevin Round