Consumers would welcome single digital register of legal services providers, LSB research shows

There is a consumer appetite for a single digital register of legal services providers, a report for the Legal Services Board (LSB) claimed.

This would be a resource offering an impartial, trustworthy ‘whole market view’, and addressing current challenges in consumers comparing and choosing providers.

The research, conducted by Community Research and commissioned by the LSB’s Public Panel, found that the 69 consumers who took part in an online discussion forum were “enthusiastic” about an online register but stressed the importance of it becoming “well known, both to drive trust, and to help it become a familiar way of choosing legal services”.

Researchers said consumers favoured features that included fees information, customer ratings and reviews, complaints data and star ratings.

They said consumers found it hard to choose legal providers and “felt anxious with the idea of finding a provider from scratch, particularly as this is not a familiar process, the stakes are high, and legal issues are stressful in themselves”.

Consumers also felt the search process was harder because of a lack of “easily comparable information online, especially information relating to customer experience”. The consequence was that there was a tendency to fall back on the familiar, choosing firms they had used before, or those recommended by family and friends.

The LSB said that, to get a digital register up and running quickly, at first it might have to include only basic information along with complaints data, but it could be extended later to include consumer feedback.

Meanwhile, CILEX Regulation has come together with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to pilot how best to approach consumer reviews in the legal market, testing how they can improve the information available to consumers.

To read more about the pilot, which initially involved 20 law firms and seven comparison and review websites, focusing initially on conveyancing and employment law services, read Sue Chandler’s article in this issue.