Regulatory Balance
The primary objective of the Legal Services Board is effective regulation of lawyers to address the concerns of and protect clients. But effective regulation requires a consideration of the impact of regulation, to ensure that the administrative burdens do not inhibit access to justice either as a result of clients choosing to represent themselves or consult non-lawyers, the cost of legal services increasing due to the cost of compliance or the regulations inhibiting innovation in the provision of legal services.
The Victorian Government recognises the need to cut red tape and improve regulation, setting a 25% red tape reduction target, and appointing Dr Matthew Butlin as the Red Tape Commissioner in 2015. As the Commissioner explains
"Regulation can be important in protecting people and in protecting the public interest. Most regulation has that intention. However, poorly designed regulation and inefficient implementation can also:
- make it more difficult to do business;
- require people to do unnecessary and costly things, in some cases for several regulators; and
- waste peoples’ time – things take unreasonably long.
If requirements are unnecessary, excessive and costly, people can’t use this time and resources to create business and employ Victorians. "
Dr Butlin has expressed the view that "the best way to understand the impact of red tape is to hear the first-hand experience of the people and businesses affected by it". The LSB lawyer members provide that first-hand experience of lawyers affected by red tape, complimenting the information provided by the consumer advocate appointees.