Public Concerns

I write to express my concern at the recent Law Society Council decisions to allow employed solicitors to provide advice to the public, and to stall once more on the issue of paying for referrals.

I am no longer working as a solicitor, but as an independent financial adviser and would imagine that many of my former high-street colleagues will also be concerned at the implications for them, and their businesses.

This government has recently announced a raft of perplexing proposals for the financial services sector, in the supposed name of competition.

However, it appears that if implemented, the public will simply end up in the hands of the banks, with their well-established record of high charges and dubious record of client service, none of which will benefit the consumer.

We are now looking at a similar prospect facing the legal profession.

It has been known for some time that supermarkets and other organisations that have considerably more financial might than the hard-pressed local high-street solicitor want to offer certain legal services, in particular in the fields of probate and personal injury law.

How can practitioners realistically be expected to compete when undercut, either directly or indirectly? Does the Law Society really wish to see the lowest common denominator in operation and legal work devalued to the extent that wills will have all the importance of those other 'loss leaders', milk and bread, that are used to capture market share?

The Society rightly wishes to modernise, but does it really feel the need to curry favour with big business and those responsible for competition policy? It seems keen to rush these proposals through as soon as possible, with the potential for legal services being dominated by a only handful of bigger players.

It seems to me that the Society cannot have it all ways and if further competition is deemed necessary, solicitors must have a level playing field, and enjoy the advantages other businesses enjoy, in particular the ability to pay for referrals to increase market share.

High-street solicitors have been facing shrinking margins for a good many years now and already provide good services to people in a market that is already very competitive.

I see nothing immediately apparent in these proposals to benefit private firms, and remain sceptical that the public would be any better served.

Christopher Sanders, Darlington