Is the legal profession failing small businesses?

According to a Competition and Markets Association (CMA) study, the FSB feel that over £100 billion’s worth of legal needs are still not being met, which they state as being a ‘considerable failure’ of the legal sector in meeting their needs.

They added that this study could be the first step on the road to the improvement of the commercial sector of legal services, which is fit for the purposes of helping small businesses.

High, uncertain costs of an open ended nature, as well as the fear of escalating complexity and time, were mooted as the reasons why small businesses often did not feel legal action would be beneficial, and this was costing them financially and in a business sense.

The perception that lawyers did not and did not want to understand things from a business point of view was a further concern, something that meant businesses felt they could not find the right provider for the services required.

The limitations of small businesses, in both a financial and time-related manner, mean that many do not have the ability to compare different legal service providers and then choose the one who would be best suited to the case at hand.

The FSB has asked for structural reforms to be implemented in order to make the legal services market more responsive to the needs of small businesses, and has also implored the CMA to review whether the Legal Ombudsman is an effective enough regulation device.

The report from the CMA will be made in July, and will decide whether it feels the legal services market will need a full inquest, which, if approved, would then be published at the tail end of 2016.