---

Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 35B: 35B: After Clause 4 , insert the following new Clause— ““Paralegals (1) The Board must assist in the maintenance and development of standards in relation to— (a) the training of paralegals employed by authorised or exempt persons, and (b) the proper supervision and monitoring of paralegals employed by authorised or exempt persons. (2) For the purposes of this section, a ““paralegal”” is a person who is not a lawyer as defined by this Act who provides legal advice, support, assistance or representation.”” The noble Lord said: This, too, is a probing amendment. It seeks to address what some believe is an anomaly that a group of individuals, generally described as paralegals, are not currently included under the remit of the Legal Services Board’s responsibilities. Apparently—I was not aware of this until recently—there are approximately 500,000 non-lawyer legal practitioners in the United Kingdom who work with or advise on the law. None of them will be covered by the Bill. Most strikingly, 50,000 paralegals work either for law firms, solicitors’ practices or in-house legal departments. These practitioners all work for bodies which will be regulated by approved regulators, and often account for more than one-fifth of fee earners in many firms, but; as the Bill stands, they will not be subject to direct legal regulation. The majority of paralegals see clients. Indeed, they frequently do work which a decade or so ago would have been done by either a solicitor or an employed barrister; for example, giving advice on employment law or probate matters. Despite that, the majority have no formal training, are usually unsupervised and are not subject to any form of regular assessment. The purpose of the Bill is to provide better legal services, acting in the interests of both the consumers and the public. It therefore seems desirable that it should take into account this important sector.