YouGOV: the most nutty facts from an in-depth research of UK legal sector

YouGOV has recently shared a massive of data on the state of affairs around legal services in the UK. The research consisted of 25 pages covering various aspects of UK legal services consumption. And that seems to be one of the most all-round works conducted in the recent decade, touching the time period starting from 2011 to 2015. The research involved respondents from all the corners of the United Kingdom, while the work itself represented a set of questions (80+ questions) with predefined answers. The output was a bulky, yet thoroughly organised table reflecting statistical results in percent values. In our brief report we’ll focus on the most interesting data and statistics, so here we go.

The most frequently used legal service in the recent two years was conveyancing (for example, legal working involving buying selling or transfer of property) - 31% of respondents used it in 2015. Interestingly, the figure almost didn’t change since 2011. Will writing was the second popular legal service among UK citizens: 27% of respondents used it in 2011, and 25% used it in 2015. The research also included such services as legal processes of managing the estate of a deceased person, family matters, accident and injury claims, and many more. This way or the other, every field of services in the research remained in the fluctuations range of no more than 4% (as for the usage in focus groups), meaning that the demand for specific legal services didn’t dramatically change. Perhaps, the only result with a clear growth dynamics was ‘power of attorney’ service (the one that includes creating legal documents along with a person to act on behalf of another) - the increase in the interest to such service has risen from 12% in 2011 to 15% in 2015.

Solicitors were the largest services providers in 2011 with 77% mark of interesting among respondents; however, this number has decreased with years up to 62% in 2015. The share of barristers and licensed conveyancers is distributed evenly (although conveyances enjoy a twofold increase in interest among respondents - 5% in 2015). The year 2015 has become a turning point for many providers that stepped in the market: financial advisors, insurance companies and national or local charity organisations were listed in the report for the first time. All the aforementioned services providers have gained at least 1 percent of interest among the respondents in 2015.

Here is another interesting aspect of the study: the question regarding providing a full scope of services by the legal representative or firm. 62% of respondents have agreed to work on the basis that legal service provider will take care of all the works related to the job; and 19% of respondents admitted they were going to take up some tasks. The fact should be underlined the percentage proportion didn’t change in comparison with the year of 2014.

Also, 8% of respondents in 2014 and 6% of respondents in 2015 didn’t know how the work is going to be conducted when they have been signing an agreement - mostly clinical negligence cases. This fact has been recently confirmed in another, less detailed report carried out by solicitors.guru, an aspiring legal services aggregator focusing on medical negligence solicitors field as well; aiming at focusing on the importance of fair legal services provision and allowing you to find a solicitor in a matter of seconds.