Clients remain reluctant to pre-empt problems using simple legal advice
My Saturday paper had a feature recently on how to avoid problems with your builder.
One suggestion was if you have a contract worth over £8,000 then get a solicitor to look over it first before you sign anything.
It would only cost £200 or so.
So the following Monday I was expecting to see a small queue of clients holding contracts in one hand and cheque books in the other.
Or even better two queues, one for clients and one for builders.
Sadly I was disappointed.
Clients of course would not want to spend anything on legal advice in this situation.
The most they would do is possibly ask a friend to look at the contract, if there is one of course.
If you are lucky there might be a letter spelling out what work should be done.
If unlucky, there would be a dimly recollected chat when the tradesman came round, took a large intake of breath and said 'you will need an RSJ'.
Very few clients would invest £20 on legal advice, let alone £200.
No doubt if they had bought a car for £8,000 or a holiday they would get insurance and gladly pay that.
But legal advice no.
One afternoon a prospective client came into the office wanting advice on an endowment mortgage which he had been mis-sold. The policy was worth £30,000 or so.
He wanted some advice and mentioned he was in a hurry as his car was parked on a double yellow line.
He was not even prepared to invest a pound or so on a car park ticket, despite having a potential claim of thousands.
No matter what area of law a solicitor wants to go into and who doesn’t want to find a new area, we are limited by the client’s expectations.
If a client is owed £1,000 he wants his money back.
All of it, as that is what he is entitled to.
He does not want it to cost him anything.
In some ways Supermarket Law does not worry me because the sort of case a person would want advice about while they are doing their shopping may not be the sort of life changing money spinner that I will miss.
I am not I hope being snooty about people who go to supermarkets as I spend much of my time there myself and queue up with other legal aid lawyers at the 'Quick sale – still fresh' counter.
Solicitors do best what they do best, which sadly is clearing up the pieces when it has gone wrong.
Comments
Problem - Agitate - Solve
It's true that it's easier to sell to someone that wants a solution rather than a preventative, think cancer. You're told what to eat, not to go in the sun etc but do you do it? Whereas when you see a doctor who says you have cancer and you need an operation - no problem you go for it.
But there is a way of creating a problem, agitating it and then solving it.
The news creates problems in peoples' minds. You expected a queue to form outside your office. That won't happen. Unless...
You contact the editor of your local paper. Explain you want to help people avoid costly mistakes. That people are worried about it (check out the article in the Saturday newspaper Mr Editor for proof). You get interviewed about horror stories and offer a fixed price review of building contracts.
You then follow this up with a small £15 advert in the builders advertising section of your local paper and test it for a couple of months (tracking all calls using a unique trackable phone number I will get you).
"Warning - Do Not Get Builders To Build For You Without A Guaranteed Contract"
Phone 0844 502 1631 For 24 Hour Recorded Message Explaining Why or Visit
BuildingDisasters.co.uk"
You then do a deal with all surveyors in your area offering your fixed fee building contract review service.
The point is that you can make things happen, don't just expect them to happen.
Interesting comment. thank
Interesting comment. thank you for the suggestion
(Try and find a newspaper
(Try and find a newspaper that will print anything interesting like that, as opposed to making you pay to put it in as an advertorial. )
Bigger ideas are needed that that to promote your Firm as the legal adviser in the area on all areas of law from trivial to huge....list some trivials in an advertising campaign, and distinguish them with big deals...get people talking - that they need to think lawyer on things they would not otherwise,
Tweet the ideas, website the ideas, small adverts in key places, news letters to business contacts and clients....heck too many secrets of my Firm's success...snowball effect.
Client Culture Change Possible?
Well, clients have never really thought to avoid problems & traditionally only usually instruct when it all goes wrong.
I receive several calls a week from immigration clients who only want a 'how to' guide. Never hear from them again as they go it alone - until it all goes horribly wrong.
I won't discuss anything with them unless they commit to an advice session at £150. That gets rid of the DIY mob usually.
Not sure how we as a profession can shift that culture to a more sensible pre-emptive model without working free of charge.
Problem is that people can't see what they're buying like with a fridge or car. People only like to spend money on what they see are tangibles.
The answer? I really don't know.
Maybe one of the Society's consultants might like to comment
thank you for your response
thank you for your response
I agree with the sentiment of
I agree with the sentiment of the article and with those that have posted comments. People do only want to buy tangible goods and I think that does tie in with the idea of 'supermarket law' and explains why the take-up of this idea has been relatively slow.
The reality is the majority of people go through life thinking they don't need legal advice, which is probably true. Then something goes wrong and often they do not know where to start. A friend of mine called me a couple of weeks ago with an issue along the lines of:
"I paid a builder to obtain planning permission and to construct a small studio in the back garden. They told me that if they couldn't obtain planning permission they would refund the deposit I paid. It has been over a year and they have said that there is no point submitting proposals for planning permission because of the area I live in, but they won't refund my deposit and aren't returning my calls/emails"
The first thing I ask is, do you have a copy of the contract? Predictably at this point the friend wasn't sure where it was. I gave him some broad advice about the pros and cons of any litigation and that going to a solicitor would cost him. Not being entirely familiar with the area the friend lives in I could not direct him to a particular firm that I knew would take his matter on. I got the sense that to my friend it all seemed like alot of hassle.
I often think the best model would be some form of legal insurance, which you probably do not need most of the time, but you pay the premiums and in the event of something going wrong you contact them and they help you. I'm just not sure it will ever catch on and it does not offer anything to the less well off.
interesting suggestions.
interesting suggestions. thank you
I agree it is symptomatic of
I agree it is symptomatic of our quick fix materialistic culture
thank you for your comment
thank you for your comment
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