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I know from my firm's own research that those firms undertaking the largest volumes of conveyancing in my firm's region intentionally mislead consumers with regards to their fees. Disguising legal fees as 'disbursements' is a widespread practice.

I fear this will be exacerbated when the proposed changes pressure firms to publish the lowest 'headline fee' in order to generate leads, only for these to be inflated by subsequent charges that aren't published alongside at the outset, or are disguised in some form.

I envisage therefore that unless this proposal comes with very strict criteria for the format in which fees should be published and what fees should be published (and these rules are enforced), fee transparency may actually become less clear for consumers.