In the last few weeks changes have been made to the way legal services are provided in England and Wales. You might not have noticed yet but you soon will.

"Tesco law" is the phrase used to describe the introduction of a new type of businesses allowed to provide legal advice from January this year. The changes largely cover who owns law firms rather than actually altering who carries out the work inside the firm.

The new law aims to help you, the consumer, have greater choice and better service at a fair market price.

In 2001 the Office of Fair Trading produced a report which found that greater competition was needed in the legal profession. With little or no competition all businesses generally tend to offer a poorer standard of service and it was felt that under the old system charges and fees were generally inconsistent, with little relevance to how much the advice cost to provide.

So opening up the legal industry to wider competition should have benefits.

No. Certain types of legal service can still only be provided by an "authorised body" - but this can now include other professionals as well as solicitors and barristers.

The legal services that must be authorised are called "reserved legal activities" and they include issuing court proceedings (for example divorce proceedings) and appearing on behalf of someone in court.

All practicing solicitors and barristers are authorised by an approved regulator (either the Law Society or the Bar Council) to act on behalf of a client and to issue divorce proceedings for them.

There are eight regulators altogether.

As well as the Law Society and the Bar Council there are now six other approved regulators:-

The Institute of Legal Executives
The Master of the Faculties
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys
The Association of Law Costs Draftsmen

A person must now be authorised by one of the above regulatory bodies before he or she can carry out reserved legal activities such as conducting litigation (for example divorce proceedings). It is an offence to do so without authorisation.

Paralegals are people who work in the legal services industry. They do not have to meet specific training standards unlike legal executives or solicitors and barristers. They are not regulated independently. They may only be authorised to conduct litigation and appear in court in very limited circumstances, such as when employed by a solicitor.

Paralegal law firms (where the paralegals are not employed by a solicitor but instead set up on their own account) generally advise people who are acting for themselves - often because they cannot afford a solicitor and paralegal lawyers tend to advertise their services on the basis that they claim to be cheaper. Paralegals are not obliged to carry insurance for this advice. They are not authorised to issue claims on behalf of clients and are not authorised by the Legal Services Act to appear in court on they behalf.

Broadly speaking yes. If the cost of legal advice is levelled out by greater competition that will be good for the consumer.

But the consumer also needs to be aware that where prices are driven below a certain point, it will become increasingly difficult to provide a reasonable standard of advice.

There is little doubt that big high street names such as Marks and Spencer and the Co-op will have the marketing budgets to attract customers if they choose to buy into the legal services market. They will have the man-power to answer every call by the third ring in one of their call centres.

But they will still need good lawyers, solicitors and barristers if they are to provide what ultimately the consumer wants - sound legal advice.