In its interim report into legal services, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally found that competition in legal services for individual and small business consumers is not working as well as it might. While there have been some positive developments, such as an increased use of fixed fees for more commoditised services, the CMA has found that upfront information on price and quality is often not available to consumers in order to allow them to compare offers and choose the one that most suits their needs.
This is because few service providers (17%) publish their prices online. It is also difficult for providers to signal quality in this sector and there are a lack of digital comparison tools to make comparisons easier for consumers.
