Radical shake-up of legal regulation urged by lawyers

● ‘Drastic’ need to modernise to protect consumers and keep pace with changes

A radical shake-up of the regulation of legal services – including new powers to suspend rogue lawyers and provisions to keep pace with the growth of artificial intelligence – has been urged by the Scottish solicitors’ body.

The Law Society of Scotland argues the way legal services are currently regulated is outdated and “in drastic need of modernisation”. It said the reforms it is proposing will help the sector keep pace with global developments and improve protection for consumers.

Graham Matthews, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “There has been enormous change within the sector in recent years and the current system – some of which is almost 40 years old – is struggling to meet the demands of today’s fastchanging legal market.

“That’s why we have called for completely new, flexible legislation which will allow much needed reforms and ensure we have a regulatory framework that is fit for purpose, addresses the challenges of modern legal practice and which puts protecting consumers at its core over the long term.”

The body has set out its proposals in a detailed paper submitted to an independent review of legal services regulation which was announced by the Scottish minister responsible for legal affairs, Annabelle Ewing, last April.

The paper says the current legal framework overseeing the profession is a patchwork of inconsistent and ageing legislation that is “no longer fit for purpose”. The organisation has put forward 11 recommendations for change, including overhauling the legal complaints system, which it says is overly complex, expensive and lacks proper oversight.

Its proposed changes also include having new powers to suspend solicitors suspected of serious wrongdoing. Further recommendations include expanding consumer protections to currently unregulated areas of legal services, regulating firms operating beyond Scotland and widening the society’s membership to improve standards amongst other legal professionals.

The society is also calling for the term “lawyer” to be protected, in the same way the word “solicitor” is. It is a criminal offence for anybody to pretend to be a solicitor but there are no such restrictions around the use of the term “lawyer”.

It also recommends any new regulatory system “makes provision for the regulation of legal services provided remotely by artificial intelligence”. Matthews added: “We believe the scale of the changes needed justifies a new, single piece of enabling and permissible legislation that can adapt to changes within the sector over the next four decades and beyond. Any new prescriptive legislation, or simply making further amendments to existing legislation will quickly be outdated.”

The Scottish legal sector accounts for some 20,000 jobs.