Responding to ACSO's latest report 'Competition & Transparency in the Legal Services Sector', Matthew Maxwell Scott says, fair competition in the legal sector "requires a strong degree of transparency so that people know exactly what they are getting, what to expect and where to turn if they feel they have been misled."
Maxwell Scott goes on to say that, "the challenge in the legal services sector has always been that its products are generally a distress purchase, and therefore made at a time of particular vulnerability for the buyer in question. This can inhibit usual consumer behaviours and so puts a particular onus on providers to demonstrate their professionalism and on regulators to help ensure services are up to scratch.
"Looking to the experience of other sectors can be helpful but not always instructive. Any proposals for greater use of digital comparison tools - the types of price aggregators which have been used to great effect to drive down prices for savvy consumers of motor and home insurance, amongst other products - need to recognise the different nature of legal services products and the difficulty (certain areas such as conveyancing excepted) in standardising prices when every individual case is likely to be different.
"Equally, online reviews can be a very helpful source of information but there is a danger both of manipulation and of perhaps the most useful of reviews - those from previous clients who were neither delighted nor dismayed by the service they received - being in the shortest supply.
"However, this is a conundrum which needs to be tackled if the level of unmet legal need is to be brought down and if our sector is to be sustainable and continue thriving in the challenging macroeconomic climate which we now find ourselves in."
Included in the report, ACSO has drafted a communication pledge for legal services providers to uphold, thereby ensuring they communicate effectively with consumers:
The ACSO communication pledge for legal service providers communicating with consumers:
- When consumers enquire as to the price of a legal product or service, they should be clearly informed that the price estimate may increase if any additional work is needed to provide the service.
- Legal service providers must communicate regularly with consumers, informing them of the progress of the service they are providing.
- If the cost of the service will increase beyond the original price estimate, the legal service provider must clearly state why this is the case and present a breakdown of costs.
- Legal service providers must consider the consumer's preferred method of communication, such as email, telephony, video or text.
ACSO has made the following recommendations for improving competition and transparency in the legal services sector:
- Shift the focus away from price transparency and towards transparency of quality.
- Widen the scope of regulators' transparency guidance so that it includes more areas of law. Much of this 'guidance should be made into 'specific requirements'.
- Introduce better quality and service indicators.
- Legal services providers should engage with online reviews.
- Better aggregate data are required if meaningful comparison of legal products is to take place.
- While a transparency mark could benefit consumers, it would have to be widely-recognised and easily differentiated from other accreditations that already exist in the legal services market.
- Legal services providers must provide clear, consumer-friendly guidance that helps consumers make informed decisions when engaging with them.