Speaking after the Legal Services Board (LSB) published its fourth survey of the legal needs of small businesses in England and Wales, Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO), said:
"The survey is valuable insight for the civil justice sector and reinforces just how wide the access to justice gap is in England and Wales. Nearly two million businesses had a legal issue last year but only 10 per cent said lawyers were value for money. Only 25 per cent used a professional for support. It is disappointing that even fewer SMEs accessed professional legal help last year than in 2017, the date of the last LSB survey.
"There is huge untapped opportunity for legal expenses insurance (LEI) to meet this unmet need. Only four percent of small businesses used LEI to fund their legal costs, which represents a major opportunity for the insurance industry to increase its market penetration for the product, and a call to action for LEI providers and all other key stakeholders to work together to do much more to raise awareness of the advantages of insurance in the event of a legal problem.
"We support the call by the LSB for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to create a small businesses legal charter, as has been done for consumers, as it could be a significant catalyst for change. The MoJ should pick this up as a matter of urgency."