Prices: Fourth wave of research
Prices for basic legal services have increased by more than inflation in recent years, while law firms offering fixed costs are significantly cheaper than those giving estimates, according to major new research.
The Legal Services Board (LSB) said consumers could potentially find lower prices by using lawyers in cheaper regions of the country – given many more now deal with clients remotely since Covid – as well as smaller firms and those based in more rural areas.
It also found the price transparency among conveyancers – which is mandatory – has improved over the past five years but is still not universal.
This is the fourth wave of the LSB’s Prices of Individual Consumer Legal Services research – having previously been published in 2015, 2017 and 2020 – as it continues to assess the impact of requirements to empower consumers and increase market transparency.
Researchers at Pye Tait Consulting – supported by statistical input from Frontier Economics – contacted 1,534 providers to check their prices across 15 specific scenarios, split equally between conveyancing, divorce, and wills, trusts and probate.
Prices on the whole have increased since 2020 after accounting for inflation. For example, the median price for the sale and purchase of freehold properties in 2020 was £1,893 (after being adjusted for inflation based the consumer price index) and £2,100 in 2024.
For a basic divorce, the median price has actually fallen over the four years – from £807 to £750 – but gone up for more complex advice, such as a divorce requiring mediation and advisory services: from £2,483 in 2020 to £3,000 last year.
A complex will has gone from £242 to £350 but a lasting power of attorney dropped by £10 to £425. Assistance in obtaining a grant of probate cost £1,000 last year, compared to £931 in 2020.
As in 2020, prices for the same services varied significantly – indeed, the spread of prices has widened – although the spread was “slightly narrower” among providers that displayed their prices online.
“While a range of prices is expected when differing service quality is available, over time and with increasing transparency, we would expect to see a narrowing of price ranges for similar scenarios, which was not evident in this study – a consistent pattern following on from the third wave.”
Law firms offering fixed prices in all three areas of work were “significantly cheaper” than those offering estimates, Pye Tait said, while firms that used estimates also tended to find services cost more than originally anticipated.
For example, the mean fixed price for a standard individual will was £150 cheaper than the mean estimate price; for a joint application for a divorce it was £386 cheaper; for the purchase of a leasehold property, £435 cheaper.
This indicated that some firms “may find it difficult to accurately charge for their services”.
There were also several incidences of firms unable to provide interviewers with a single figure for a particular service and only able to offer a range, “which could be contributing to a less transparent pricing environment”.
The research said: “Consumers can potentially find cheaper prices by considering services of firms in cheaper regions (notably where firms offer services remotely as opposed to just face-to-face), from smaller firms, and firms based in more rural areas.”
In total, 88% of surveyed conveyancing firms displayed prices on their website – up from 73% in 2020 – but there was “clearly still some way to go for all regulated firms to be compliant with these requirements”.
In divorce, the proportion displaying prices on their website has dropped slightly since 2020, whilst in private client there has been a very small increase.
There was “some evidence of a relationship between higher service quality and higher prices among conveyancing providers” – firms whose service was entirely bespoke were significantly more expensive than those whose service was entirely standardised. This was not the case in the other two areas, however.
“There is no evidence from the 2024 research that firms claiming to compete more on the basis of price than service are significantly cheaper,” Pye Smith added.
On the whole, firms with a quality mark were no more expensive than those without, with the exception of those that were not members of the Law Society’s Wills & Inheritance Quality Accreditation Scheme, some of whose pricing was “significantly cheaper”.
In conveyancing and private client, the mean price of medium and large firms was “significantly” higher than that of smaller firms, as were those of conveyancing and divorce firms based in cities.
There were no major differences between alternative business structures and traditional firms.
Samuel Omolade, head of strategy and research at the LSB, said: “The latest wave of our research into the prices of legal services reveals mixed results for consumers.
“The rise in prices is a concern, though the research demonstrates that there are opportunities for consumers to make informed choices – about accessing services remotely, for example, or how to understand pricing. This will help them to choose the service that’s right for them.
“The LSB will continue to push for greater price transparency across the sector, making it easier for people to shop around, find prices and compare services.”
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