Client care

The academic who earlier this year angered criminal defence practitioners when he revealed research suggesting the firms he shadowed had mistreated their clients, has warned that the legal aid cuts planned by the Ministry of Justice will only make things worse.

Law firms are suffering from a “nationwide epidemic of missed opportunities” because of the way they deal with telephone enquiries, new mystery shopping research has claimed. In 97% of calls, the handler failed to ask if the caller wanted to go ahead or make an appointment.

Some of the country’s biggest law firms are moving closer to establishing stand-alone human rights policies, it has emerged. Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Herbert Smith Freehills are among those working towards creating policies.

Lawyers needs to improve their interpersonal skills, be patient, respectful and remove jargon to provide disabled clients with a better legal service, research has claimed. More also needs to be done to advertise legal services to people with learning disabilities.

Defence lawyers bear partial responsibility for miscarriages of justice, and better ethics training and spending time with ordinary people are as likely to reverse “moral decline” as boosting pay, according to new research.

The Law Society last week finally launched its Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme (WIQS) last week with a warning to the profession that it needs to act to halt the fall in its market share. But the likes of the Co-op, AA and Saga will be able to apply for it too.

Close to half of consumers of legal services are not satisfied with the value for money they received, with probate providing the least satisfaction and will writing the most, according to research. Just 57% considered they received value for money on average.

Adopting the Virtual Practices (VP) hosted legal software and outsourced cashiering service has helped Sorrells Solicitors to streamline its services and to move across the UK from Essex to Wales.

The use of fixed fees in family, probate and housing cases has risen significantly, leading to far higher rates of client satisfaction than when they pay by the hour, according to a major consumer survey.

The names of 1,617 law firms and barristers who have been the subject of a formal decision by the Legal Ombudsman are now in the public domain. But there are positive signs for the legal profession in how few have recorded even five formal decisions.

More than four out of five of divorcees want family law services provided by fixed fees, according to research carried out by Co-operative Legal Services to launch a campaign against hourly rates in light of this week’s legal aid cuts.

More than half of those going through a divorce were priced out of the legal services they would have bought and felt they needed, new research has found, with nine out of ten people told by solicitors to take or leave pricing on an hourly rate.

A war of words has broken out between the Law Society of Scotland and Council of Mortgage Lenders over the former’s decision to ban joint representation of borrower and lender, subject to formal rule changes later this year.

The trend towards ‘unbundling’ legal services is gathering pace, with a Yorkshire law firm launching a ‘Pay as You Go’ service for family law clients who will no longer be eligible for legal aid after 1 April.

The government does not intend to extend legal professional privilege to non-lawyers, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday after accountants urged Parliament to level the playing field for multi-disciplinary entities.