Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 119: 119: Clause 122 , page 63, line 19, at end insert ““, and (d) the activity is a legal activity.”” The noble Lord said: I shall also speak to Amendment No. 120A. These amendments have been grouped together as they relate to the extent of the jurisdiction of the ombudsman scheme. In Clause 125 the jurisdiction of the ombudsman scheme is stated to cover an authorised person, regardless of whether the complaint relates to the performance of legal services. That appears to be unnecessarily broad. The amendment therefore provides that there should be jurisdiction only for complaints about the respondent’s legal activities. Amendment No. 120A has been inspired by the silence of the Bill on paralegals. The amendment seeks to include them within the jurisdiction of the ombudsman scheme of the OLC. The Bill as drafted does not give any adequate means of address for those with complaints about paralegals working outside law firms, which, as noble Lords discovered on the second day of Committee, concerns a considerable number of individuals. The amendment would enable the OLC to have the power to intervene in complaints against these non-law-firm paralegals, especially when they are giving legal advice directly to clients. As highlighted in the earlier debate, paralegals are unregulated and very often untrained. Some sort of redress for the consumer against these individuals must be in the consumer interest, and indeed has been requested by the paralegal profession itself. I beg to move.