Thursday 6 October 2011

Supermarket Law


New legistlation allows supermarkets and banks to offer consumer legal advice, having been restricted by legislation and regulation previously.  The Government says the new Legal Services Act will increase economic growth in the sector and further promote Britainas a first-class legal services market, believing it will also offer wider choice and better value to the public. Under the new trading bodies, known as Alternative Business Structures (ABS), lawyers will be able to work in mixed-practices offering financial, legal and other advice, or be based at different kinds of businesses, the first of which will be covering services such as property law and probate.

The Bar Standards Board says that these changes could also see barristers, who have traditionally been self-employed, take up single roles in businesses or eventually form partnerships themselves.

However, the Act, having been dubbed by critics as “Tesco Law”, it is feared will undermine the quality and independence of advice.Despite the name, Tesco has said it has "no current plans to offer legal services", whereas the Co-Operative has been one of the first to show interest in offering such legal services.

5 comments:

  1. Boo, I say. It's the beginning of the end! ;-)

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  2. Despite the criticisms it is good to stay optimistic, atleast this way the legal field can expand perhaps enough to give graduates a more brighter and clearer prospect if they dont't want to go down the traditional route etc.
    But many solicitors have relied on being "unique" in a sense due to their personal contributions to their clients.
    SO this can potentially undermine the work of legal professionals. Definitely not in favour of this!!!

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  3. I have to agree that it does make the prospect of finding work after uni slightly less daunting, but I still think it it stands a chance of undermining the quality of advice.

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  4. The whole way the profession was has long gone, whether rightly or wrongly legal advice is seen as a commodity now. The issue is what's the value of it, and driving down costs relentlessly will result in poorer levels of legal advice

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