Online calculators to help businesses and individuals estimate their legal costs for conveyancing, debt recovery and probate have been launched by Bath-headquartered regional law firm Royds Withy King.
The three calculators are in response to new rules from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on pricing and transparency which came into effect last week.
While there has been resistance from some parts of the legal sector to the changes, Royds Withy King managing partner Graham Street, pictured, said they enabled clients to evaluate their options and make more informed decisions.
“Rather than bury our pricing in the back end of our website, we have created online calculators so that clients can quickly and easily work out their costs and access supporting information on the service levels they can expect,” he said.
“We believe this will make life easier for clients and provide competitive advantage to those firms that see the new rules as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
The SRA announced its Look to the Future initiative in June in a bid to bring law firms more in-line with other service-led businesses. All SRA-regulated firms with residential property, uncontested probate, debt recovery, employment tribunals and immigration teams must publish price and service information relating to these areas, along with their complaints procedures.
Graham Street added: “Although the new rules apply to just a few practice areas, we believe that the SRA will extend them over time to cover most aspects of service delivery. From the conversations we’ve had, it appears that many firms are doing the bare minimum to meet the requirements, but we’ve embraced it as a way of engaging with our clients and adding value.”
Royds Withy King employs around 520 staff across its offices in Bath, London, Oxford and Swindon.
