14 Feb Time for high st solicitors to follow the local butcher
What has horse meat in a lasagne got in common with the legal profession?
Although it sounds like the start to a joke, it is anything but and out of the scandal overtaking the news at the moment there is an important and comforting message for traditional legal firms.
It is simple, you buy the cheapest of the cheap and invariably you get let down.
The Legal Services Act has created the same sort of godless scramble in the legal industry as we now see in food. It is a fact of life cheap and cheerful, is often substandard.
Ok, it doesn’t matter too often in many cases. It isn’t the end of the world if you buy a saucepan from the outdoor market and the handle falls off a week later, but what about the bigger things?
This food scandal is one of those. A processed lasagne, may be incredibly cheap, but if you have it once a week for many years the effects soon mounts up. All those E numbers, preservatives and salt will take its effect. This doesn’t even take into account if there are horse antibiotics, which could poison us.
Now as we turn on our TVs we see all these hapless people in elasticated waist trousers currently telling us that they’ll never buy meat from the supermarket again. They have been let down. They are surprised that their 79p lasagne isn’t very good for them!
Well can the same be said of cheap legal services?
Is a bargain basement online divorce really going to give them what they want? What about conveyancing- the legal process involved in buying the most expensive financial acquisition most mere mortals are ever likely to make?
What happens when that goes wrong? I’ll tell you. It’ll cost a six figured sum and ruin most people.
As you are no doubt aware, it seems the regulation of will writing is moving forward, but regulation is great until something happens to show the rules aren’t tight enough. The food industry is regulated. Isn’t it?
However, who has benefited? The good old local butcher with his carefully sourced produce yet pricier meat.
Like the butchers, the high street lawyer has to position himself for others misfortune.
The new players in the Legal Services Act may have snazzy marketing gimmicks and are able to offer bottom dollar prices, but despite the dominance of supermarkets many family butchers have survived and prospered by knowing their customer.
The reason they have survived is they treat customers well, offer a high quality product and give their customers peace of mind, rather than a piece of Shergar.
Quality always gives when cost is the only issue. This is true of every product and service and in the sorry horsemeat scandal it is well worth the high street lawyers using this to their advantage.
