THERE IS no denying the fact that once well-heeled barristers and solicitors have had a tough couple of years and the recession and the bursting property bubble have hit many very hard, particularly those who qualified over the last decade.
Just how hard the profession had been hit was evident at the Law Society’s graduation ceremony in August. The mood was bleak with new recruits told by old hands that the good times were well and truly over.
Many newly qualified solicitors and barristers will struggle to find a job while those in work face redundancies and contend with lower wages and unsustainably high loans borrowed when times were good.
Even so, should consumers be feeling sorry for the legal professions? These are, after all, professions which absolutely coined it during the good years by charging large sums for simple conveyancing and imposing hourly fees that would make a normal person blush.
While a recent survey of 176 firms talks of an increased client expectation of reduced fees putting pressure on the industry, a report published earlier this month said legal fees had bucked a trend toward falling prices in business services over the last five years.
The National Competitiveness Council’s annual “competitiveness scorecard” found that while most business services prices were lower in 2010 than in 2006, legal services were more expensive.
It is not like the professions make it easy for consumers. Section 68 letters are supposed to outline the exact fees a solicitor will charge but these can be anything but transparent.
The legal profession was one of the main beneficiaries of the property boom and, for most solicitors, conveyancing was a core part of their business.
Typically, solicitors used to charge a percentage of the sale price – anywhere between half and three-quarters of a per cent of the value of a house sold.
Sometimes such conveyancing was tricky, but half a per cent of the purchase price for conveying 100 newly built houses in an estate meant a big payday for a solicitor.
There remains an absence of hard data but there is anecdotal evidence which suggest that fees are falling faster than the official figures might suggest.
Some smaller country firms are charging less than €1,000 for conveyancing and many Dublin solicitors will do the job on an average-sized family home for no more than €1,500, less than half of what they were charging at the height of the boom.
The fees for arranging commercial leases have fallen, too. Solicitors used to charge a minimum of €5,000 to arrange such a lease while today, some will arrange a lease on office spaces for less than half that.
The cost of separations and divorces is now between €3,000 and €4,000, a drop of at least 25 per cent on the fees charged at the height of the boom. A deed of separation, which would have cost a couple at least €4,000, can now be done for half that amount.
Critically, consumers are increasingly in the driving seat when it comes to prices. The days of a solicitor telling people how much something was going to cost and that fee being accepted without murmur have largely disappeared and anyone contacting a legal firm should be ready to haggle.
Probate is one area where many pay over the odds. A probate document can often be straightforward and simple for a lay person to do. Too often the fees charged do not have anything to do with the level of skill involved or the complexity of the process. We are aware of at least one person who was quoted €6,000 for sorting out the probate after the death of an elderly parent. When this sum was questioned, the solicitor reduced their quote by half.
Privately, solicitors admit that it is not uncommon for members of their profession to overcharge when it comes to probate fees in particular, because their fees come out of an estate and as such, will not be unduly missed by the beneficiaries.
When it comes to probate, consumers should remember they are not tied to a particular solicitor. It is also worth bearing in mind that it is not difficult to handle simple cases of probate without any legal training.
The Revenue and Courts Service are more than willing to talk people through the complexities of the process.
Stuart Gilhooly is the president of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association. He says there has been a significant downward pressure on prices and consumers are shopping around more and looking for better value.
“When it comes to conveyancing, some solicitors are so desperate that they will do it below cost,” he says. However he questions whether this ultimately serves the best interest of the consumer – shoddily done conveyancing can lead to huge problems down the road.
“Consumers should not feel sorry for the legal profession, the legal profession is well able to look after itself, but they do need to realise that the perception that we are all fat cats is very wide of the mark and people should realise that there are also a lot of solicitors who are very close to the edge,” Gilhooly adds.