Solicitor bankruptcies in the Merseyside area have risen sharply, the official receiver said last week.Ian Thomson, official receiver for Liverpool, said that there have been ‘more than the usual’ number of solicitors going bust over the last six months. Thomson estimated that in a normal year, between four and five solicitors go bankrupt in Merseyside. However, he said that six had failed since the start of the year, in an indication of the difficulties facing firms across the country.

The news comes after sole practitioner Alan Savage, who ran Liverpool firm Woolwich, Lander & Savage, was last month adjudged bankrupt with debts of more than £180,000.

‘Solicitors aren’t exempt from financial difficulties, just like everyone else,’ Thomson said. ‘As the economy contracts, you would expect the services market to contract as well. It’s understandable when you think about the property slump.’

Woolwich, Lander & Savage made a loss of £29,000 in the year to June 2008, and lost £21,000 in the year to June 2009. Savage drew a salary of just £11,000 in 2008/09 as turnover fell from £205,000 in 2007/08 to £110,000 the following year.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority intervened in Woolwich, Lander & Savage in May and closed the firm.

In September last year, Lees Lloyd Whitley, a 190-year-old Merseyside firm with 90 staff, collapsed owing £11.8m.