Client care

There is a “climate of renewed vulnerability” among smaller law firms, with the vast majority of lawyers believing there are “still rough times ahead”, a report has found. The report also revealed a huge gulf between lawyer and client perceptions of value.

There is a “disturbing level of tunnel vision” among law firms when it comes to adopting modern customer service standards, which could ultimately make the difference between success and failure, according to a report published today. It said that in an ever competitive market, law firms that are not thriving may only have a brief chance to turn things around before it is too late.

The proportion of people selecting their conveyancer on price has fallen to only one in ten, a survey of 5,400 home movers has shown. The same survey found that only three years ago 20% of clients chose the cheapest.

The Legal Services Board is set to instruct the frontline regulators like the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board to get tough with lawyers who do not handle client complaints properly. Draft guidance published for consultation yesterday said that they could stage “supervisory interventions” into poorly performing firms.

Solicitors who offer ‘unbundled’ legal advice to help litigants deal with challenging parts of the process provide an “invaluable” service to both the court and litigants, the Court of Appeal said yesterday. In a ruling that gave explicit backing to unbundling, the court refused to read broader responsibilities into a limited retainer.

Law firms should be braver in asking potential clients for work and making sure they follow up leads, the new chair of LawNet has said. Kim Carr, managing partner of FBC Manby Bowdler, said lawyers “didn’t like selling things”.

Lawyers at small and medium-sized firms are motivated much more by helping clients than running businesses, research has found. Only a slender majority said they enjoyed managing a business or saw themselves as “entrepreneurial”, compared to the 83% who got a “real buzz” out of practising law.

Some 60% of conveyancing firms refuse to give fee quotes over the phone and, whether they do or not, the majority then fail to follow-up with their prospective client, ‘mystery shopper’ research has revealed.

At a time when “the cost of legal services has generally been allowed to rise to unsustainable levels”, lawyers and the clients need to reconnect the four key ingredients that go into the purchase of legal services – cost, price, value and relationship – Professor Stephen Mayson has argued.

Consumers using ‘unbundled’ legal services generally report a positive experience and it has the potential to widen access to justice, groundbreaking exploratory research has found. However, it made clear that other solutions were also needed to address the legal needs of “more vulnerable consumers” unable to unbundle.