The Legal Services Board has postponed until 2012 its decision as to whether will writing should become regulated or not.
The Board is also thinking about launching a formal investigation into conveyancing as a result of the high incidence of negligence claims by consumers and fraud within the industry.
It will not be until after the third quarter of 2011 that the Legal Services Board will decide whether or not to approach the Lord Chancellor and ask that writing wills be a reserved activity under section 24 of the Legal Services Act 2007. A post-investigation consultation is set to take place between January and March 2012.
The Legal Services Board deemed consumer research into will writing necessary as it was one of a number of "apparent gaps in the regulatory system."
In September 2010 Legal Services Board chief executive Chris Kenny stated the level of "external interest creates an impetus to consider more urgently will-writing in its own right."
Another "gap" is conveyancing which the Board states needs investigation as a result of several existing conditions that warrant a review. These include increasing levels of fraud within conveyancing-related industries.
The research into conveyancing is one of five potential reviews of areas in which the Board believes it may have to "respond to risk". The others are enforcement, disciplinary rules and appeals, referral fees, immigration and smaller approved regulators.
Set up in 2007 under the Legal Services Act, the Legal Services Board is an independent body who oversee the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. Their aim is to "reform and modernise the legal services market place by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system."
Related Resources:
- (LegalFutures.co.uk)
- Learn how to write a will (FindLaw.co.uk)
- Learn more about conveyancing (FindLaw.co.uk)
- Find a solicitor in your area (FindLaw.co.uk)
