New research published by the Legal Services Board (LSB) has shown that, as could probably have been expected, shopping around for legal services can save the consumer money.

The LSB commissioned research into the prices that consumers pay for a number of the most commonly used legal services. The aim, they said, was to help them to understand more about competition between providers, affordability and access to justice for consumers.

The LSB claim that the research provides, for the first time, robust data on prices for conveyancing, divorce, wills, power of attorney and estate administration in England and Wales. The data indicates that consumers who want a competitive price should be aware that:

• lower prices can be obtained by shopping around, because prices vary significantly for the same service
• firms that display prices on their websites and/or that offer fixed fees tend to be cheaper
• the majority of firms surveyed (67%) stated that their prices had stayed about the same over the last 12 months. Three in 10 (29%) had increased prices and 4% reduced them
  firms based in the South East of England charged significantly higher prices compared to firms located elsewhere, and
• the majority of firms considered that in most cases services were not likely to cost customers more than initially quoted.

The report: Prices of Individual Consumer Legal Services can be found at research.legalservicesboard.org.uk/news/latest-research-10/.