The CMA in conjunction with eight legal industry regulators has set out a list of new measures designed to make it easier for UK consumers to make sure they are getting value for money when purchasing legal services. In particular, research conducted by the CMA uncovered a troublingly low level of transparency around the pricing of legal services, as well as low-level comprehension among consumers about what different legal services are and why they are needed. The Legal Services Board has been tasked with overseeing and reporting on the new guidelines for the industry, with the CMA set to review the sector’s progress in three years’ time.

Key recommendations

The CMA will now require legal service providers to display information on prices, services, redress and regulatory status in order to help potential customers make informed purchases. According to the CMA’s year-long investigation, only 17 per cent of legal service providers currently publish prices for various services on their websites. The study also found that only 22 per cent of legal service consumers use price comparison websites when choosing a provider – a percentage the CMA would like to improve on. As such, the regulator is asking service providers to help facilitate the development of comparison websites by making data already collected by regulators available to the public.

The complete list of CMA’s recommendations and research findings can be found here.