The bar standards regulator is encouraging barristers to sign up to a digital pilot that will allow the public to submit ratings and reviews after announcing a legal comparison website is the latest organisation to join the scheme.

The Bar Standards Board’s ‘digital comparison tool’ pilot, which was launched last autumn, will allow potential clients to locate and select service providers using criteria such as location, ratings and reviews to help the process.

The BSB yesterday announced that The Law Superstore, a comparison website, is joining Lawyer 365, Legal Utopia, Review Solicitors and Trustpilot as pilot participants.

As well as signing up more review and comparison platforms, the BSB said it continues to encourage barristers to join the pilot, which runs until September. Barristers will be asked to join at least one of the organisations, encourage clients to leave reviews and, where possible, engage with reviews, and provide feedback on their experience working with the organisations.

The five pilot participants have signed up to a voluntary code of conduct, which includes a clear complaints policy and seven-day timeframe for barristers to respond to reviews that have been published.

The BSB said the pilot’s initial focus on employment does not prevent public access and referral barristers specialising in other areas of law from joining the pilot if they want to.

In a webinar last year, the BSB said the pilot builds on a similar pilot by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, CILEx Regulation and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers last year. An evaluation will be published this year. The BSB will publish an evaluation report of its pilot towards the end of the year.

 

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