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Price and Service Transparency

Helpsheets and support

Published: 07 Feb 2019 Update History

New Legal Ombudsman's postal address from 22 January 2024

Ensure your records are current. From 22 January 2024, all written correspondence should be sent to: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH

For consumers to make an informed choice of legal services provider it's vital they can assess price and service provision information to help them decide on their provider of choice. This increased transparency can also greatly benefit ICAEW probate accredited firms and help them stand out in the legal services marketplace.

Mandatory publication of price and service transparency information

The Legal Services Board approved ICAEW’s application to update its Legal Services Regulations to mandate the publication of price and service information in November 2021.

Monitoring compliance

Compliance with the updated Legal Services Regulations will be assessed by our Quality Assurance team as part of all probate monitoring reviews.

What information must your firm publish?

Your website, engagement letters and other communication materials should include the required price and service information.

Probate firms must publish:

Legal Services Regulations

The relevant section of the regulations which mandates price and service transparency is 2.7t onwards.

Compliance with the updated Legal Services Regulations will be assessed by our Quality Assurance team as part of all probate monitoring reviews.

Transparency of pricing and services can bring significant benefits:

  • Potential clients will compare the transparency and quality of information provided by firms. Firms that adopt the transparency requirements will have a commercial advantage over those that do not.
  • Complaints caused by a lack of information on pricing and services at the outset of the engagement can be avoided.
  • Transparency of pricing will highlight the lower costs a multi-disciplinary firm can offer its clients.
  • It will support and encourage a culture change regarding how transparency is viewed.     

Resources

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Background

Further information regarding the background to the changes can be found by reading ICAEW’s 2021 consultation on the issue.

Following the results of the consultation, ICAEW applied to the Legal Services Board (LSB) to update the Probate Regulations. The LSB provided its approval for the changes in November 2021.

Useful links