Legal services market study

The CMA carried out a market study into the supply of legal services in England and Wales.

• From: Competition and Markets Authority
• Published: 5 February 2016
• Last updated: 19 December 2017 — See all updates

• Case type: Markets
• Case state: Closed
• Market sector: Distribution and service industries
• Opened: 13 January 2016
• Closed: 15 December 2016

Case timetable

Date	Action
12 January 2017	Statutory deadline
15 December 2016	Publication of final report
19 August 2016	Deadline for comments on the interim report
8 July 2016	Publication of interim report
3 February 2016	Deadline for responses to the statement of scope
13 January 2016	Launch of market study

Contact

legal.services@cma.gsi.gov.uk

Government response to findings and recommendations

19 December 2017: The Department’s House of Lords Spokesperson has replied on behalf of the Ministry of Justice to the legal services market study findings and recommendations.

• Government response (19.12.17)

Remedies implementation

• Remedies Programme Implementation Group meeting minutes 2018
• Remedies Programme Implementation Group meeting minutes 2017

Legal services regulators have published their plans to help people shop around more effectively, in response to the CMA’s market study.

• News story: Plans published to make it easier to shop around for legal services (29.6.17)

Final report

15 December 2016: The CMA has published its final market study report into legal services. It has found that competition in legal services for individual consumers and small businesses is not working well, and has made recommendations in order to address the issues that it has identified.

• Final report (15.12.16)
• Press release: CMA demands greater transparency from legal service providers (15.12.16)

Responses to interim report

• Anonymous 2 (29.9.16)
• Summaries of individual responses (29.9.16)
• The Law Superstore (29.9.16)
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (14.9.16)
• Legal Action Group (14.9.16)
• Absolute Barrister (9.9.16)
• Access solicitor (9.9.16)
• Anonymous 1 (9.9.16)
• Bar Council (9.9.16)
• Bar Standards Board (9.9.16)
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (9.9.16)
• Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (9.9.16)
• Council for Licensed Conveyancers (9.9.16)
• Dispute Resolution Ombudsman Ltd (PDF, 4MB) (9.9.16)
• Federation of Small Businesses (9.9.16)
• ICAEW Professional Standards (9.9.16)
• ICAEW Representative Arm (9.9.16)
• Intellectual Property Regulation Board (9.9.16)
• Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society (9.9.16)
• Law Society of England and Wales (9.9.16)
• Law Society of Scotland (9.9.16)
• Legal Ombudsman (9.9.16)
• Legal Services Board (9.9.16)
• Legal Services Consumer Panel (9.9.16)
• LSG (9.9.16)
• NED Legal (9.9.16)
• Society of Professional McKenzie Friends (9.9.16)
• Society of Scrivener Notaries (9.9.16)
• Solicitors Regulation Authority (9.9.16)
• STEP (9.9.16)
• Thompsons Solicitors (9.9.16)

Interim report

8 July 2016: The CMA has published its interim report setting out its initial findings and emerging views on possible remedies. In addition, the CMA has published reports of 2 consumer surveys it commissioned to understand the experiences of individual and small businesses consumers in the legal services sector.

This includes quantitative and qualitative research conducted by IFF Research with individual consumers and qualitative research conducted by Research Works with small businesses.

• Interim report (PDF, 2.23 MB) (8.7.16)
• Notice of decision not to make a market investigation reference (8.7.16)
• Press release: CMA seeks views on ways to help legal services customers (8.7.16)
• IFF Research survey of individual consumers
  • Final report (PDF, 1.39 MB) (8.7.16)
  • Presentation (PDF, 1.29 MB) (8.7.16)
  • Data tables (Excel, 1.53 MB) (8.7.16)
  • Technical annex (PDF, 1.25 MB) (13.7.16)
• Research Works survey of small business consumers (PDF, 1.33 MB) (8.7.16)

Responses to statement of scope

24 March 2016: The CMA has published non-confidential versions of the responses submitted by stakeholders to its Statement of Scope document either in full or as part of an anonymised set of summaries. In addition, the CMA has set out an update on case studies in light of comments received.

• Update on case studies (24.3.16)
• Summary of responses (24.3.16)

Responses listed below

• AccessSolicitor (24.3.16)
• Anonymous respondent 1 (24.3.16)
• Anonymous respondent 2 (24.3.16)
• Anonymous respondent 3 (24.3.16)
• Anonymous respondent 4 (24.3.16)
• Bar Council (24.3.16)
• Bar Standards Board (24.3.16)
• Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (24.3.16)
• Chancery Bar Accosiation (24.3.16)
• Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (24.3.16)
• City of London Law Society (24.3.16)
• CLC (PDF, 1.4 Mb) (24.3.16)
• Federation of Small Businesses (24.3.16)
• Fisk Strategies (24.3.16)
• ICAEW Professional Standards (24.3.16)
• ICAEW Representative Arm (24.3.16)
• Institute of Paralegals (PDF, 3.3 Mb) (24.3.16)
• Law Society (PDF, 3.6 Mb) (24.3.16)
• The Law Society of Scotland (24.3.16)
• LawNet (24.3.16)
• Legal Ombudsman (24.3.16)
• Legal Services Board (PDF, 2.1 Mb) (24.3.16)
• Morrish Solicitors LLP (24.3.16)
• NED Legal (24.3.16)
• Peninsula Business Services Ltd (PDF, 2.2 Mb) (24.3.16)
• Redde plc (24.3.16)
• Society of Licensed Conveyancers (24.3.16)
• Solicitors Regulation Authority (24.3.16)
• Society of Professional McKenzie Friends (24.3.16)
• STEP (24.3.16)
• The Sussex Law Society (24.3.16)
• Thompsons Solicitors (24.3.16)
• Toynbee Hall (24.3.16)

Launch of market study

13 January 2016: The CMA has launched a market study into legal services to see if they are working well for consumers and small businesses.

The CMA will examine competition and consumer protection issues within the market study.

• Market study notice (13.1.16)
• Legal services market study: statement of scope (13.1.16)
• Press release: Legal services study launched by CMA (13.1.16)
• Disclosure of interests (5.2.16)

Published 5 February 2016
Last updated 19 December 2017 + show all updates

1. 19 December 2017

   Link to government response to findings and recommendations added.

2. 15 December 2016

   Final report published.

3. 29 September 2016

   Responses to interim report published.

4. 14 September 2016

   Responses to interim report published.

5. 9 September 2016

   Responses to interim report published.

6. 13 July 2016

   Research report technical annex published.

7. 8 July 2016

   Interim report and research reports published.

8. 6 July 2016

   Date for publication of the interim report added to timetable (8 July 2016).

9. 24 March 2016

   Responses to statement of scope published.

10. 5 February 2016

    Disclosure of interests published.