Quality indicators – join our pilot

News

14 January 2021

What do you think makes a good quality legal service? Some people might argue it’s the level of expertise of the person providing the service, or whether the legal work was carried out accurately. Others might say it’s the way it is delivered, in terms of speed or customer service.

Members of the public are increasingly looking for information that can help them understand the quality of legal services they might receive to help them compare different firms and lawyers. Our 2018 transparency rules set out what we expect you to publish and it’s all the more important that you provide this information in the current circumstances.

We now want to look at whether there is more that can be done to improve the range and the accessibility of information available to consumers about legal service quality. In February we are launching a pilot, alongside other legal regulators, where we will trial some new approaches to improve the information available to the public about lawyers and their services.

The pilot will focus initially on two areas of the legal sector – conveyancing, and employment law, and initially focus on opportunities for firms to seek feedback from their clients and to manage online customer reviews. We are looking for law firms to take part in the pilot with us.

Recent consumer research to support our Year One evaluation of our transparency rules found that the majority of consumers looked at a law firm’s website before instructing them, while 47 per cent also looked at customer reviews about the firm.

We also know that demand for reliable and trusted digital information is increasing generally. Research by Ofcom shows that UK adults now spend more than a quarter of their waking day online, a trend driven by the pandemic. It’s timely to look at whether comparison websites and other digital tools can play a bigger role in the legal services market.

If your firm provides conveyancing services and/or employment law services and you are interested in finding out more, send your contact details to the Quality Indicators team.