1. Transparency and Trust
DAY 2 – October 5th
11: hrs

2. MODERATOR
Philip Yelland Executive Director of Regulation Law Society of Scotland

3. PANELISTS Neil Buckley Rebecca Marsh Philip Yelland Michal Masior
Chief Executive
Legal Services Board
England and Wales
Rebecca Marsh
Chief Ombudsman
Legal Ombudsman Service
Engaland and Wales
Philip Yelland
Executive Director of Regulation
Law Society of Scotland
Michal Masior
Phd Student
Warsaw

4. Trust and transparency
Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
Transparency -
Clear/unambiguous

5. The regulatory architecture
Legal Services Board

6. Regulatory performance
LSB’s regulatory performance framework includes five standards:
Regulatory approach
Authorisation
Supervision
Enforcement
Well-led: Governance and Leadership
WL: GL3: The regulator is transparent about its own: decision-making; regulatory approach; the risks it and its regulated community faces and how these are being mitigated; performance; regulated community and related markets; financial costs.

7. Public trust in lawyers
Source: Legal Services Consumer Panel’s annual tracker survey

8. LAW FIRMS THAT DISPLAY PRICES ON THEIR WEBSITES
Market transparency
17% x2
SMEs THAT CONSIDER LAW FIRMS ARE TRANSPARENT ABOUT COSTS ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE
LAW FIRMS THAT DISPLAY PRICES ON THEIR WEBSITES

9. “Truth isn’t truth”

10. LeO in England and Wales
Jurisdiction –
Regulated service providers:
Solicitors
Barristers
Conveyancers
Statutory body
 Legal Services Act
Legal ombudsman
Complaints about service:
Costs
Communications
Delay
Complaints brought by:
Consumers
Charities and trusts
Micro-enterprises

11. Trust & Confidence: ombudsman
Role of Ombudsman
Remedy and reassurance
Feedback and learning

12. Trust & Confidence: sector
Trust requires honesty
“I don’t want perfect I want honest!”
Transparency is vital throughout
Good complaints handling

13. What is important to consumers
Consumers views
62%
60%
48%
35%
33%
Solicitors views
35%
45%
23%
17%
64%
Regular updates on progress
Clear cost information
Clear explanation of process
Plain English / clear communication
Positive outcome
(Research into the experiences and effectiveness of solicitors first-tier complaints processes, 2017, London Economics)

14. Questions Prices: low, transparent, proportionate to value
Role of price transparency in building trust for lawyers vs. other factors (like professionalism)
Lack of incentives to communicate prices
Types and scope of price regulation and their rationale
Effectiveness of regulatory tools to enforce transparency in prices or to hinder it
Role of supervisory agencies and market-oriented regulation
Other factors: shocking events,
Price differentiation and cross subsidizing; internal anti-competition lobby
Types: fixed fees, minimum, maximum, recommended, none.
Scope: type of cases
Changes in time

15. Law Society of Scotland
Professional Body –
Helps and supports members and regulates
Trust through open regulatory processes
Use of non solcitors in those processes all decision making sub Committees 50/50 solcitors and non solcitors
Regulatory work overseen by Regulatory Committee chaired by non solcitor (created through Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010
Public polling
Price Transparency –
Key current issue
Being persued by consumer bodies
Some legal services can be commoditised – domestic house buying for example
Challenges of the complex – court actions
Problem of the uninformed consumer and the ability to get pricing certainty around many other services

16. Public information about prices of legal services
Germany: allowed (§ 6 Berufsordnung)
France: allowed (art of Règlement Intérieur Nationale)
Spain: allowed (art. 25 of Estatuto General de la Abogacía Española in force)
Poland: prohibited for advocates (§ 23a of Kodeks etyki adwokackiej), but allowed for legal advisers (art. 31 of Kodeks etyki radcy prawnego)
Europe, transnational services: allowed (art. 2.6 of the Code of Conduct for European Lawyers)

17. Price regulation in commercial cases and pactum de quota litis
Germany: fixed fees and minimum fees, pactum de quota litis forbidden (§ 49b of Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung)
France: none, quota litis allowed as supplementary (art. 10 of loi n° )
Spain: none, quota litis forbidden (art of Estatuto General de la Abogacía Española)
Poland: none, quota litis allowed as supplementary (§ 50(3) KEA, art. 29(3) KERP)
Europe, transnational services: none, quota litis forbidden unless complies with official fee scale or is under control of an authority (art. 3.3 of the Code of Conduct for European Lawyers)

18. Dynamics of legal services’ prices in Germany (2006-17)
Administered prices – RVG (most services) Minimum prices – fee agreement Regulated prices for legal services (RVG) rose (were increased) more than less regulated (fee agreement): 22% to 13% in Role of competition
Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis) Indices of business producer prices, table
Base for 2006=100

19. Lunch break
DAY 2 – October 5th