Client care

The great majority of consumers who have used legal services are satisfied with the outcome, although many do not feel they received good value for money, a survey has found. Worryingly for lawyers likely to face competition from trusted brands after October, however, it suggested significant public distrust of lawyers.

Face-to-face advice remains important to clients in several key areas of legal work and can help ward off complaints, Legal Services Board research has found. The research by YouGov discovered face-to-face advice most prevalent in family matters and will-writing.

The chief executive of national law firm Russell Jones & Walker has questioned the ability of large solicitors’ consortiums to provide clients with a consistent service across the board. Neil Kinsella stressed the importance of independence and consistency.

The Bar Standards Board has approved the latest version of guidance on “signposting” requirements to notify lay clients of their rights to complain about poor service. It hopes the new formula will satisfy both disgruntled barristers and the Legal Services Board.

The founder of property website Rightmove enters the law today with the intention of making his online conveyancing service the market leader within three years, Legal Futures can reveal. It is being marketed on the basis of service quality, rather than price.

Customer experience will largely define the success of legal providers in the post Legal Services Act world, according to a survey of delegates at last week’s Legal Futures Conference. Understading the client is vital but doing it will be difficult for some firms, the survey found.

Frontline regulators are letting down consumers by failing to collect information on how lawyers are handling complaints, a review by the Legal Services Board has concluded. This would make it difficult for them “to identify systemic issues and adopt a targeted approach to regulation”.

Consumers believe that a lawyer who has provided a bad service should be “named and shamed”, research released today has found. However, there are signs that consumers are likely to use published information “in a way that may be at odds with the Legal Ombudsman’s reasons for publication”.

Some 342 law firms have applied to join the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) since it opened last month, the Law Society has revealed to Legal Futures. A spokesman said the number is growing rapidly, with around 20 new applications a day at the moment.

The obligation on barristers to notify clients of their right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman is more a marketing opportunity than a burden, the Legal Services Board has said. Meanwhile, the LSB reaffirmed that its policy on providing complaints information at the time of engagement will stand, despite a number of concerns raised by the Bar Standards Board.