Publication of the Report

On 15 December 2016 the Competition and Markets Authority published its Legal Services Market Study – Final Report.

The recommendations include:

  • a requirement on providers to display information on price, service, redress and regulatory status
  • building up the existing Legal Choices website (a joint initiative of the legal regulators) to be a consumer education hub covering both regulated and non-regulated parts of the market
  • facilitating the development of a single digital register enabling comparison sites and other intermediaries to allow customers to compare providers in one place
  • recommending to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that it investigates whether to extend protection from existing redress schemes such as the Legal Ombudsman to customers who have used non-regulated legal services providers.

The CMA also calls on the MoJ to launch its delayed consultation on the independence of legal regulators.