A host of major businesses are being lined up to offer a new service providing consumers with help to handle a wide range of legal matters for an annual subscription of £59.99, we can reveal.

CPP is a leading provider of what it calls ‘life assistance’ services such as credit card protection and mobile phone insurance and recently launched ‘Your Law’, working with national law firm Irwin Mitchell and legal document company Lawpack.

CPP, a listed company with a £326m turnover last year, largely provides its services through some of the biggest financial services, telecoms and travel businesses in the country, including RBS, Santander, the AA and T-Mobile. Your Law head Alasdair MacSporran confirmed to Legal Futures that after an initial trial of offering it direct through the CPP website, “over the next few months we will roll it out to business partners”.

He would not identify which ones, but did say he is talking to banks. He said the early signs from the website are good and that “we have seen some very positive conversions” of interest.

Calls are initially filtered by CPP. Your Law provides: access to advice from Irwin Mitchell on any legal matter online or over the phone, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no limit on how often it is used; an online legal library, including templates for dealing with common problems; and help to find the most appropriate way to pay for legal services if a solicitor needs to be formally appointed, including discounts from Irwin Mitchell’s fees if the customer chooses to use them.

The company said the price is “intended to give people better access to quality legal advice whereas before the perceived cost of legal advice may have discouraged them”. It said its research showed that 81% of people have needed legal advice, but more than 25% of those surveyed did not seek it due to cost, complexity, lack of time or knowledge.

Mr MacSporran said a key goal was to help people with everyday problems that they do not know how to handle – such as noisy neighbours, parking fines and returning goods to shops – and might consider too small to engage a lawyer for.

“When faced with a legal concern, it is difficult to know where to turn and many people worry about the cost and time investment that will be involved,” he said. “Our product will allay those concerns and provide the legal advice that is demanded.”

Legal Futures first revealed CPP’s intention to enter the legal market a year ago and reported that its research also showed suspicion of totally free legal support, which some consumers thought was likely to be more time consuming. People were willing to pay £50-60 a year for such a service, it found. CPP has around 200 business partners world-wide.

One Response to “Big brands set to roll out 24-hour legal advice service for £60 a year”

1. At last. Glad to see someone has grasped the nettle.

   JS

Julian Summerhayes on September 1st, 2011 at 3:58 pm