Complaints: Lack of trust
Trust in in the legal profession is relatively high – but not when it comes to believing law firms will deal with complaints properly, research for the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) has found.
Meanwhile the proportion of consumers shopping around for a law firm has gone up again, after a dip last year, while the proportion saying they were satisfied with the legal service they received hit an all-time high of 87%.
According to the LSCP’s 13th annual tracker survey, the proportion of dissatisfied consumers who knew how to complain to their law firms was only 51%, with 28% uncertain and 21% not knowing how to complain. The figures are virtually unchanged from last year.
Although a slender majority knew how to complain to their law firm, only 48% said they would actually do it.
For the first time, the LSCP asked consumers who would not complain to their law firm why, with a third saying they would not trust their provider to deal with it properly, 32% said it would take too long and 28% that it might affect their bill.
In another new question, the LSCP asked consumers what would increase trust levels in their lawyer.
The most popular answer was if the lawyer was a specialist, followed by the fact ‘the legal profession is regulated’, having a lawyer who ‘explains things in a way I understand’, meeting the lawyer in person and seeing positive reviews.
The latest tracker survey was carried out for the third time by MEL Research, which contacted over 3,600 adults who had used legal services in the past two years.
Some 73% reported that they trusted lawyers to tell the truth (only 8% would not), compared to 84% saying the same for doctors. Older people, white and those with qualifications were more likely to trust lawyers to tell the truth.
Consumers were asked what words they would use to describe lawyers and the legal profession: professional (65%) and knowledgeable (57%) came top, with 12% found lawyers difficult to understand and 10% that they are self-interested. Further, only 19% stated that they are good value for money. Women were more negative than men.
The proportion of consumers shopping around for their law firm increased from 39% last year to 41%.
The proportion saying they found it easy to make price comparisons was also up slightly, to 68%, as was the proportion saying they felt they had a choice of legal services provider (82%) and who found it easy to understand the cost of their legal service (78%).
When choosing a law firm, the top five factors remained reputation (88%), price (84%), specialism (82%), speed of delivery (78%), and local offices/convenience (75%).
Seven out of 10 consumers said the overall service and advice they received was “good or very good value for money”, up from 68% last year and equalling the record set in 2022.
Consumers relied on the traditional methods of finding a lawyer, led, as usual, by previous use of the lawyer by a family member, followed by a recommendation from family and friends. Use of the internet remained the same at 11%.
The end of the pandemic was reflected in an increase in consumers saying their legal service was delivered mainly by face-to-face advice, up to 45%, and back to pre-Covid levels.
This varied dramatically depending on the kind of service, with 67% of consumers using face-to-face for wills, compared to only 24% for conveyancing.
The proportion saying they were satisfied with the service they received hit an all-time high this year at 87%, up from 85%.
Seven out of 10 consumers agreed that accessing services digitally would make it easier to fit into their schedule and 68% that it would make legal services more accessible.
However, there was a four percentage point increase, to 56%, in the proportion of consumers saying they would trust legal services less if they could only access them digitally, “highlighting a barrier to widespread adoption of online services”.
Tom Hayhoe, chair of the LSCP, commented: “Consumers need to have confidence that when something goes wrong, there is a clear and simple route to complain. Our research shows this isn’t the case. Only half of consumers know how to complain.
“Another significant proportion feel they cannot raise complaints with their legal professionals because they do not trust them to handle it properly, in a timely manner or without charging more.
“Legal services providers need to improve their processes for handling complaints, and do so quickly. Clear routes and speedy resolution of complaints are the minimum.”
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