Legal Services Bill [HL]

It is worth recalling that, in so far as cash burdens are imposed on the legal profession, these will be charges on access to justice for those who are consumers of legal services. That aspect of the matter must be borne in mind, particularly in relation to start-up costs. It is not very fair that a particular group should be penalised by having to bear the start-up costs of an enterprise that is quite large. Light touch it may be, but it is certainly not without pretty substantial costs. I venture to think that it is unlikely that the number of complaints dealt with by the system will remain constant in the years to come. In the years that have passed, the number of complaints has not been fixed, but has generally increased. If this system is as good as we hope it may be, it is highly likely that people who rightly or wrongly feel aggrieved will want to have recourse to it, whereas people in similar positions in the past may have felt that it was not worth embarking on the process. I am an honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple, but otherwise am completely unaffected by any of these proposals.