Law firms that close for lunch and only open during standard nine-to-five office hours could be missing out on up to 38% of consumer enquiries, it has been claimed.

Referral service Contact Law has monitored the 60,000 telephone calls it received from consumers in the first seven months of 2010. The service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Contact Law found that 62% of calls were received between 9am and 5pm. However, the busiest time was midday to 1pm, with 9% of all calls received at this time. Director Dan Watkins said: ‘Ironically, this is the hour that many law firms still close for lunch.’

The figures showed that the volume of calls gradually diminished between 5pm and midnight to around 31% of the total, and fell to just 7% between midnight and 9am. ‘This gives a total of 38% of all enquiries being made during times that the majority of law firms are closed,’ said Watkins.

Contact Law also monitored which calls produced the most business for the 5,000 solicitors on its panel. Watkins said: ‘Takeup was uniformly good between 8am and 8pm, with only a small dip in the hours up to midnight as consumers did their research after work. It was disappointing after midnight – which is unsurprising.’