Legal Services Market Study

Paul KellawayAssistant DirectorCompetition and Markets Authority

Our focus on legal services

EMPLOYMENTWILLS AND PROBATECOMMERCIAL

SMALL

Deep dives through case studies into:

INFORMATIONPROTECTIONSREGULATION

Three themes:

Top 5 legal needs

3

Conveyancing26%

Of people whohad used a legal

service in the previous 2 years

Will writing19%

Probate13%

Family12%

Accident/injury9%

Access to information

45%no idea of

price before contact

22%shop

around

Fixed fees92%Standard

will

78%Convey.

23%Estate admin.

59%Grant of Probate

77%Say

reputationimportant Say

costimportant

62%

47%Had a lawyer

recommended17%Lawyers

publish any price

29%Compared

Residential conveyancing

9%Used an LC

as main advisor

67%Saycost

important

91%Paid no

more than expected

30%no idea of

price before contact

45%Chose

conveyancer used before

32%Recommended by professional

22%LC publish any price

information

Price dispersion - conveyancing

£0

£1,000

£2,000

£3,000

£4,000

£5,000

£6,000

£7,000

Sale(freehold)

Sale(leasehold)

Purchase(freehold)

Purchase(leasehold)

Sale &purchase(freehold)

£603 £700 £650 £750 £1,250Median

Distribution of prices

0%20%40%60%80%

100%

<£500 £500-£749 £750-999 7

Price dispersion – wills and probate

Median

£0

£1,000

£2,000

£3,000

£4,000

£5,000

£6,000

£7,000

£8,000

£9,000

Individual will(standard)

Individual will(complex)

Lasting powerof attorney

Grant ofprobate

Estateadministration

£150 £163 £380 £650 £1,500

Distribution of prices

0%20%40%60%80%

100%

<£250 £250-£499 £500-£749 £750-999£1,000-£1,499 £1,500-£1,999 £2,000+

Opportunities for Licensed Conveyancers?

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

First Time Buyers (LHS) % of mortgaged sales (RHS)

Volu

me

of s

ales %

of sales by FTB

Based on research by Halifax

Helping consumers understand their Legal Choices

Introducing new minimum standards on transparency

We recommended that providers will, for the first time, have to provide prospective clients with information on the price and service they can expect, at the point it matters.

Engaging with quality

Customers need to understand price, service and quality to fully compare providers.

Recommendations are an important feature of the legal services market. We see a greater role for aggregated reviews and recommendations.

Digital comparison tools

14

The future?

Data

ConsumerProduct

RegulatoryGovernment

ModelsComparison

tablesLead

generationRobo-advice

Auto-switchingVoice

Reverse auctions

unlockingregulatory data

We have recommended that regulators make more data available through open data licence and in machine readable formats

AI not quite there yet…

17Montages by Karen Zack