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Anonymous 14:21 - I disagree. We are a service industry, selling a service. We do not sell tins of Heinz beans.

As soon as service is confused and muddled up with a suggestion that lawyers sell a good, the public lose, as they will consider lawyers are the same, just the price being the difference.

It happens when some people phone for conveyancing quotes – heartbreaking to hear people asking for “your lowest price possible”.

The ‘publicise your price’ or the one size fits all comparison site model, is highly disrespectful of the legal needs of the individual client, when actually, I would like to know the finer details of a potential client’s situation, so I can best estimate the legal fee likely to secure them the outcome they seek.

I personally feel that comparison websites are parasitic, not dissimilar to certain legal panel managers. Both certainly have seriously impressive marketeers hoping for a gullible audience, but still parasitic, and totally unnecessary.

Firms already promote personal profiles, content and blogs – on their website! But if the issue is the inability to secure a wider audience, then perhaps this is where the Government can help in its standardisation and thus improvement of all conveyancers in one go, with the DCLG’s call for evidence to ‘improve’ the home buying and selling ‘process’.

(I have a 15 point list of ideas - I am sure other conveyancers have similar.)