Legal Services Consumer Panel to investigate fee-charging McKenzie Friends

The Legal Services Consumer Panel is to investigate the emerging market of fee-charging McKenzie Friends.

The move is the first stage in a programme of work by the panel to investigate the regulatory implications of the anticipated rise in litigants in person following changes to legal aid.

The LSCP said: “McKenzie Friends have traditionally operated as volunteers but the Panel has identified an emerging market of individuals and microenterprises which charge for these services.

“There are mixed attitudes towards this development. One school of thought has concerns that these people may provide poor advice, offer little in the way of consumer protection, prey on the vulnerable, promote their own world view (e.g. on parenting) and undermine lawyers’ reserved activity rights. The other school of thought says that some help for litigants in person is better than none at all, some McKenzie Friends are very competent and ethical, and that lawyers are not losing out because their services are unaffordable for the client group using these services.”

The panel said its starting position was to recognise that fee-charging McKenzie Friends were a feature of the legal system which was appearing to grow and there was a lack of knowledge about this emerging market which would be useful to address.

“Therefore over the next few months we plan to carry out a trawl of websites and interview McKenzie Friends in order to build a picture of what’s going on,” it said.

The panel will also meet with the judiciary, lawyers and stakeholders and plans to host a seminar in February to obtain views on what the main issues are and how these should be addressed.

The LCSP has asked anyone with an interest in the project or case studies to contribute to email the panel.