Missed opportunity

Small businesses ask a solicitor for help with only 12% of their legal problems, research by the Legal Services Board (LSB) has shown. More than half of the businesses handled legal problems on their own, and just five per cent had an in-house legal expert while eight per cent had legal retainer contracts and two per cent had both. However, more than a third of the 9,700 small businesses surveyed had experienced a “significant” legal problem. Chris Kenny, chief executive of the LSB, said the research showed law firms were missing an “opportunity to contribute to growth—and to grow themselves”.