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Prior to qualifying in the UK I practised in Canada and began my career working for Jane Harvey Associates, a ground-breaking new concept in law where we used price advertising and modern techniques to provide what were promoted as a reasonable service for a reasonable price. That was at the beginning of the modern era of computer use. We could knock out a will or other relatively standard document while the client waited. What an advance!

What I discovered about the experience is that it only worked by using lawyers who were newly qualified and were paid an equally "reasonable" salary, ie., less than a secretary. In exchange we were expected to work shop hours and then some. The other thing I discovered was that nothing was standard and that there was huge scope for overworked and inexperienced lawyers to make huge numbers of mistakes.

Yes, you can get a standard form document for next to nothing. These used to come in something which we don't see much anymore, "books". You could buy a "Wills Made Simple" book at something called a "bookstore".

What this Zoomlaw are is an internet version of "Law for Dummies". Yes, you can get a simple form and get it filled out for very little. Then you can get someone paid a derisive salary and worked to the bone to give you 10 minutes of time for £23.50. All this only goes to show that there is room in the market for cheap services and a feeling that it is politically right to tell the public that they can get one over on expensive lawyers.

What you get, in the end, as I discovered, was a poor service, a poor result and an ethos of discouragement among people working in this type of business. The founders who want to sell bottled "lawyer bashing" make money. The lawyers who are forced/seduced into working in these types of outfits may or may not give good advice...you get what you pay for...but they don't get job satisfaction. I ended my experience of 9 months in such a practice asking my employer to sack me. This was in the early 1980's and that type of practice, far from taking off, hasn't succeeded in taking any share of the market from lawyers who do the job properly for a fee which reflects the time, experience, and hard work that is required to do a difficult job like law properly.

But, hey, call it "Qualitylaw" or whatever name entices the public to think that politicians can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

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