Will compelling firms to appear on a comparison platform work for the claims sector? Andy Cullwick, head of marketing at First4Lawyers, takes a look
Go compare! It’s not just opera singers imploring us to use price comparison websites. The Legal Services Board (LSB) is reportedly considering forcing law firms to sign up to comparison websites in order to try and increase transparency across the sector.
Why? Well, it seems that the LSB feels that the profession’s response to the Competition and Market Authority’s call in 2016 for action to aid consumer choice has been underwhelming, and is looking at ways in which it can address this. But will compelling firms to appear on a platform comparing price or performance work for the claims sector?
Possibly. There have been efforts previously to create comparison sites for legal services—Contact Law, Conveyancing Store, Unbiased and Solicitor.info are some examples—but they just haven’t taken off in the same way that the utilities and insurance sectors have. Most likely, this is because the provision of legal services isn’t generally commoditised, and as a result, the market hasn’t embraced the idea.
Recently, the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) published its Consumer Impact Report and found that despite the LSB’s efforts, just 2% of consumers used price comparison sites in 2019 to choose a legal services provider, unchanged since 2014. The report also highlighted that the percentage of consumers who say it is easy to make price comparisons between providers has fallen from 58% in 2018 to 38% in 2019.
The LSB is definitely feeling under pressure to demonstrate that it has taken the CMA’s concerns on board and steps have been taken, ahead of the CMA’s report, which will be published at the end of the year. Law firms are now required to publish prices for certain types of work and display a Solicitors Regulation