Part 2: Jon Robins continues his predictions on how deregulation will affect the legal services market
The purpose of the reform agenda of the Legal Services Act 2007 is to unleash the powers of competition thus enabling consumers to have greater choice and access to improved services. However, if the only criterion for exercising choice is price, as distinct from judgments made on an understanding as to quality, then there’s a problem.
“Quality” in legal services is a slippery and elusive concept, as was made clear from the three comments below taken from a recent report by the Legal Services Consumer Panel (Quality in Legal Services, November 2010).
- Consumer A: “You only buy or sell a house once or twice in your lifetime…you’ve no yardstick to measure them by.”
- Consumer B: “They’re all solicitors and qualified to a similar level, and so it doesn’t matter whether they’re charging you £200 or £800.”
- Consumer C: “We put ourselves in their hands and because they’re qualified and they’re professionals, we just hope and presume that they’re going to give us the right information
