Client care

Law firms in England and Wales have imported the practice used by some American firms of offering clients the opportunity to reduce bills if they perceive poor service, it has emerged.

Solicitors working pro bono could offer a triage system to people who cannot, or think they cannot, afford a lawyer so that they can understand their options for resolving legal disputes, the Law Society has told the new government.

Problems with communication continue to dog solicitors, the results of the largest-ever client research have shown, while the way they follow up potential leads is another area where major improvement is needed.

Economic pressures forcing solicitors to ‘commoditise’ their advice “throw into sharp focus the need for standard form letters of advice to be clear in their exposition”, the Court of Appeal warned yesterday.

Although 80% of lawyers at small firms rate their services as ‘above average’ only 40% of clients rate them that way, a major study has found. The survey found that lawyers misunderstood clients’ priorities.

There is a wide range of practice areas where solicitors can offer unbundled legal services, from actions against the police to civil litigation, the Law Society has suggested. It said firms could also use paralegals to act as McKenzie Friends in court.

Conveyancers have usurped family lawyers as the main cause of complaints to the Legal Ombudsman, its annual report has revealed. But it also urged lawyers to think twice before pushing for formal decisions rather than accepting informal resolutions to complaints.

There is considerable unhappiness among home buyers and sellers with conveyancers and the speed of the moving process, new research has found. More than 40% of consumers were unsure or unlikely to offer them repeat business.

Large corporate clients are demanding “far more” fixed fee and ‘menu’ pricing, but are having to push firms into providing it, a survey based on interviews with 40 in-house teams and 50 top 100 law firms has found.

London firm Hodge Jones & Allen has launched a fixed-fee arbitration service for divorcing couples in the wake of judicial support for such a move to keep costs down. The firm is encouraging more law firms to get on board.