It seems
that a majority of consumers say that they do not trust lawyers.
In a recent
survey by the Legal Services Consumer Panel just 43% said that they trusted
them. This is a real problem especially as other suppliers including the Co-Op
and Eddie Stobart are now in the market for providing legal services.
It is fair
to say that lawyers have always had an image problem. I can remember years ago
as a newly qualified solicitor being told by a colleague that someone had said
all lawyers were like bananas – yellow, bent and normally hanging round in
bunches.
TV Dramas
don’t help. In soap operas the lawyer is normally a rogue, is a complete wet
blanket or battling with an addiction.
Even in
quality dramas like Silk, solicitors do not exist unless they are a love
interest for the main characters or criminal bullies!
These are
false images but ones which are deeply entrenched.
So what can
we do to increase levels of trust?
Lawyers
were seen by most people as expensive money grabbers. For ordinary people those
days are well and truly in the past. Most litigation is run on the basis of no
win no fee agreements which do not involve any cost at all to the consumer. Conveyancing
work is so competitive that high quotes just mean the client goes elsewhere. But
clients are still afraid of excessive fees so there is a communication issue
there somewhere.
There are
some mega rich lawyers in the big City Firms but there are the minority now. Some
legal aid lawyers are very low paid.
So it is
really a question of relevance and communication. Lawyers do huge amounts of
free work but do not shout about it. It is even hidden behind a Latin phrase –
pro bono, as if we are embarrassed to say what it really is. Many lawyers spend
hours on voluntary projects or lobbying elected representatives on behalf of
their clients. But very little is ever said about this.
Now I’m not
promoting a hug-a-lawyer week! Even I wouldn’t go that far.
But I do
think all lawyers need to look at how they and their businesses are perceived
by their communities. It is by active engagement that these distorted images can
be changed.
There has
never been a better opportunity for this through the arrival of modern social
media. A lawyer who tweets is a lawyer who is in touch. A lawyer who is active
in the virtual world is seen as a real person – ironic but true. But above all
we all live and work in real communities and if we are going to build trust we
have to be involved but also let the world know!
No comments:
Post a Comment