Public Know little about lawyers
People’s contact with lawyers tends to be at the most sensitive and vulnerable times of their lives. The research below shows that consumers do not have the information or, sometimes the skills to choose a lawyer based on their own assessment of quality and cost.
This article was written by Judith Gordon-Nichols, the President of ILEX, and extracted from the February edition of the ‘Legal Executive Journal’.
The survey of 2,033 people by YouGov found that overall 68% of consumers have ‘little or no’ knowledge of what lawyers do. This was despite the fact that over 60% of those polled had personally used legal services, with 53% having used them at least once over the last five years. More positively, three quarters of people were satisfied or very satisfied with the legal advice they had received.
The survey has revealed that few consumers shop around for legal advice, relying instead on recommendations from friends and family (26%), using the same lawyer they had previously instructed (20%) and recommendations from a business such as an estate agents and insurance company (15%).
Interestingly, when quizzed about potential changes in the legal market, only 13% were keen on services being provided by high street brands. A legal version of NHS Direct (52%), drop in legal centres in the local community (50%) and price comparison websites (42%) were the most popular, although the overall desire was for cheaper services (56%).
Cost was the overwhelming reason cited by those who were in a situation where seeking legal advice would have helped but they decided not to.
Steve Molloy, Marketing Manager at Antony Hodari commented ‘The above survey clearly shows the effort and investment the personal injury industry has to make to increase public confidence and awareness. Antony Hodari & co realise the importance in raising public confidence in their own brand and are investing heavily in infrastructure and advertising.