Legal Services Bill Passed in Scotland

Thu, 01 Oct 2009

New legislation has been passed in Scotland allowing banks and supermarkets to offer legal services for the first time. The Legal Services (Scotland) Bill has been dubbed ‘Tesco Law’ and aims to offer consumers a wider choice of legal service providers . Leading lawyers and consumer groups have voiced their support for the legislation, which follows recommendations from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that there should be a broader choice of legal services for the public.

The bill sets out the alternative business structures designed to improve Scotland’s legal profession, and removes restrictions on solicitors entering into business relationships with non-solicitors. This had previously been prohibited under the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980. Solicitors will now be able to secure external investment and business expertise for their law firms.

There have been concerns raised at the impact of the legislation on smaller firms. With supermarkets like Tesco likely to secure lucrative corporate contracts as well as a high volume of individual clients, it is feared that smaller legal firms will not be able to compete with the legal costs and may find the work available to them reduced.
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