Recent research has found that consumers of legal services lack the confidence to raise a complaint about poor service even where they have highlighted a particular issue.
According to the Legal Services Consumer Panel, under half (44%) of consumers said they felt confident to make a complaint about a lawyer.
The findings were published in the consumer watchdog’s three year plan which also revealed that 49% of dissatisfied customers of legal services did not complain. This, it said ‘cannot be acceptable in a market where consumer engagement is important for competition.’ In order to address this, the panel stated that the sector needs to work harder in order to find the underlying causes so it can tackle them.
The panel also reiterated the need to balance priority against the growing regulatory pressure toward flexibility in the legal market. One example it found where this was compromised related to insurance, and the different types required depending on the service provider. As such, consumer were unsure as to whether, if something went wrong. Access to the compensation fund would be available.
