Lawyers see rise in insolvency and employment work
Law firms have seen a surge in insolvency-related work and employment advice, as tough economic conditions continue to affect clients.
Figures from law firm referral service Contact Law showed a significant rise in calls from members of the public and businesses relating to employment and insolvency.
Employment-related inquiries rose to 16,199 between 1 January and 31 July this year, a 30% increase on the same period last year. Of these, most were from people who had already been dismissed by their employer, or were about to be made redundant.
Calls relating to insolvency rose 72% during the same period compared to last year, with 548 inquiries.
Contact Law director Dan Watkins said: 'Insolvency-related legal enquiries are now, by a distance, our fastest growing area, and with the UK and global economic climate worsening and talk of a double-dip recession, this is a trend that shows no sign of slowing down.
'This, coupled with the continuing rise in employment-related enquiries, paints a worrying picture of the state of the UK economy.’
Comments
Enquiries do not equal work
Employment law enquiries do not necessarily equal work. Most people have a job and will at some point need to leave it, move or possibly even be made redundant or be dismissed. Many more have general grumbles and complaints. They may well enquire with a law firm and take some general advice. However, the vast majority of the general public cannot afford or simply are not willing to pay for advice or any work undertaken by a solicitor. Moreoever, the majority of those enquiring will not have any claim or be able to take any action against their employers.
From my own experience (and these statistics are accurate), 1 enquiry in 20 from members of the public would turn into work. Of those 1 in 20, maybe 1 in 5 would turn into a piece of work of any value. The result is that you field 100 calls and have a paralegal or trainee devoted to sifting the wheat from the chaff for that one case that might just bring some money in. 100 calls take a considerable amount of time to field and then vet.
A rise in enquiries is very different from a rise in the amount of paid work that a solicitor will undertake.
Re: Enquiries do not equal work
Hear, hear!
In a previous role I or an assistant used to field a lot of Contact Law enquiries, most of which involved employment law. The ratio of enquiries to useful enquries might have been marginally better than 'anonymous' suggests (I no longer have access to detailed statistics), but people still had to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find the odd prince.
This is particularly true in relation to employment work. In a time of economic uncertainty quite a lot of people want advice or representation, but only a small proportion of those have both the means and the inclination to pay for it.