We all know the old saying (usually told at the expense of lawyers) that 'In England, justice is open to all, like the Ritz hotel'.

However, what many solicitors fail to appreciate is that legal technology suffers from exactly the same problem, namely that there are some very good systems out there but, like the Ritz hotel, you can only benefit from them if you can afford their asking price.

And in some instances, the asking price is mind-bogglingly steep; for example, last year, one magic circle firm spent 30 million on the purchase and implementation of a new practice management system.

Although these prices are sometimes the result of the complexity of the systems, in most cases they are attributable to the overheads associated with the software; for example, you will often see software prices quoted on a 'cost per seat' basis.

However, what is often not so clear is whether this price relates just to the end-user licence or also takes into account the costs of the central hardware, server and database infrastructure, as well as any training, implementation and ongoing support costs associated with getting the software up and running.

Or, to put it another way: when you are quoted 500 per seat, is that an all-in price or does it presuppose you will also be spending 50,000 on a server and database?

The net result is that when it comes to selecting software, firms need to be aware which demographic or market segment they belong to, otherwise they risk wasting their time talking to suppliers whose products are always going to be outside of their price range.

Apportioned across 100 users, the 50,000 cost of a server and database ceases to be so significant, whereas in a five-user firm it means the cost is not 500 but 10,500 per seat.

In forthcoming issues, this column will offer a series of buyers' guides on different areas of legal technology.

By way of clarifying at whom these systems are targeted, we will use the same market segmentation framework the Law Society is using for the next edition of its Software Solutions Guide.

These are: sole practitioners/very small firms (one to five users), small high street firms (two to five partners or six to 25 users), larger high street (six to ten partners or 26 plus users), commercial and regional firms (11-25 partners) and City & major regional firms (26 plus partners).

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide