Guidance

Legal services: making it easier for consumers to choose a lawyer

Published 15 December 2016

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-services-cma-recommendations/legal-services-making-it-easier-for-consumers-to-choose-a-lawyer

Legal services

Our recommendations are designed to make sure consumers can be confident about the price and service they can expect when they hire a lawyer.

We’ve asked regulators to introduce enhanced standards:

  • lawyers will be required to publish prices on their websites so that pricing is transparent
  • lawyers will be encouraged to engage with reviews and ratings so consumers know how good their lawyer is in advance
  • for the first time customers can be confident they will have the right information at the right time

We’ve asked regulators to make their data available to third parties:

  • data will be published by legal regulators to facilitate comparison tools to help customers find the right lawyer

An improved market for everyone:

  • the recommendations will make the market more competitive, which will encourage lawyers to make their services and their businesses more efficient and to offer better quality

We want customers to have appropriate protection:

  • we’ve recommended that the government reviews whether customers of unauthorised providers have sufficient access to redress

We want to ensure regulation encourages competition and innovation:

  • we’ve recommended that government reviews the regulatory framework for the longer term

Lawyers should be as easy to compare as anything else you buy. Remember to shop around.

We’re changing the legal market to make hiring a lawyer easier and fairer.

The CMA carried out an investigation into the market which encompasses the work of all legal professions.

It found out that there were problems of transparency of price and quality and that consumers didn’t have the information they needed before employing a lawyer.

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