Law firms' told to advertise VAT

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last week issued a warning to law firms about the importance of accurately advertising their costs.

The ASA has received complaints that some solicitors have been advertising their services without including the amount of VAT, a practice expressly forbidden by the British Code of Advertising and Sales Promotion.

ASA spokeswoman Donna Mitchell said: 'The code is very explicit on the matter - firms should always quote prices inclusive of VAT when advertising to customers.

The only occasion where this is not the case is when adverts will be read mainly by businesses who will be able to recover VAT.'

The Law Society's Guide to Professional Conduct simply says that it should be 'made clear' whether or not VAT is included.

Alison Crawley, the Society's head of professional ethics, said: 'As long as it is made very clear whether or not VAT is included, we don't mind how firms advertise.'

This ASA warning came amidst a spate of other complaints about misleading legal advertisements.

Leicestershire Law Society had complaints against two will-writing organisations - Wills Legacy & Law and Paragon Partnership - upheld.Both companies claimed to have 'fully qualified legal staff', when in fact they did not.

Paragon uses members of the Society of Will Writers, while Wills Legacy & Law's staff have law degrees.

Leicestershire Law Society's complaint about Paragon's assertion to be a 'National Independent Legal Services organisation' was also upheld.

The ASA said the term implied a connection with an official organisation that did not actually exist.

Leicestershire's complaints that both companies failed to mention what it thought was a compulsory storage charge were not upheld as the ASA found they were not compulsory.The ASA also upheld a complaint from a trading standards department about the Legal Document Company sending letters in envelopes which said 'Legal documents...

private and confidential'.

In reality, they contained unsolicited mailshots.

The company has agreed to change the wording.

The Legal Document Company was launched recently by solicitor Stephen Kimbell of Milton Keynes firm Kimbell & Co.

It offers companies legal documents for business use (see [2000] Gazette, 8 June, 20).Victoria MacCallum