Bellwether highlights risks of pricing transparency

Many solicitors at small and independent firms reject regulators’ push for pricing transparency and believe cost-focused behaviour by clients will undermine their professional integrity, according to the latest Bellwether Research paper.

Some 71% of respondents said their work is compromised by ‘client demands and their consumerist behaviours’, while 58% believe that price-driven clients are impacting on the ability of lawyers to uphold the integrity of the law and provide the best service to clients.

When asked why they thought consumerist behaviour risks affecting professional integrity, 26% cited ‘reducing costs at expense of quality’, 5% said ‘client doesn’t realise skills dropping’ and 3% said ‘encourages unethical practices’. 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) introduced new price transparency rules on certain services in December 2018. However, only 29% of solicitors polled are happy to publish prices and 32% reject the move. Only one in ten believes that transparency is a force for good.

One reason for this response is that clients often fail to understand the value of a service or the complexity of the work involved.

In one case, for example, a client asked how much it would cost to write their own letter but send it on the firm’s headed notepaper—the request was refused. Another client, according to Karen Purdy, director at Purdys Solicitors, ‘said of the cost of wills including a complex trust, “but it’s just words”! It is our job to explain how that piece of paper benefits that client and their family’.

More than 200 lawyers at small and independent firms across England and Wales were surveyed for the research, ‘The Changing Face of Law’, along with 12 in-depth interviews, published by LexisNexis this week. 

Jon Whittle, market development director at LexisNexis UK, said: ‘The internet has encouraged consumers of almost all products and services to be able to make quick and easy comparisons between providers and price is the easiest common denominator.

‘Most solicitors we surveyed believe that outcomes are the most important factor for clients when it comes to judging value for money. Service, speed, and efficiency follow, with price falling last.’