Co-op Legal Servcies and Family Law Services – how will they do it?
Recent news that family law heavy weight (metaphorically speaking) Christina Blacklaws and other members of her team at TV Edwards will be helping Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) set up the provision of family law services, prompts me to ask the following questions:
1. CLS has a call centre (in Bristol, I think), but it appears that Blacklaws is pushing for a face-to-face approach which is often so crucial for family law matters (in order to build client/customer rapport and trust). I note Co-op is bidding for closing Lloyds TSB branches, so more places at which to meet client’s?
2.The Gazette quotes “a range of innovative options” will be on offered, but how will that include the prospect of collaborative family law meetings (Blacklaws being collaboratively trained herself), or advocacy for those cases which go to court? Local family lawyers acting as agents for CLS, or CLS solicitors in every town?
3. How will they approach billing? – fixed fees according to the Gazette article, but this will be a bold departure from the traditional hourly charging rate by moving into the notoriously difficult option of fix fees for all but the basic legal processes of an undefended divorce.
I wait with interest to see how this all works out…
Sources:
Blacklaws joins Co-operative in family law coup http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/co-operative-unveils-family-law-coup
Co-op to move into family law after hiring high-profile solicitors http://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/co-op-to-move-into-family-law-after-hiring-high-profile-solicitors
Co-op confirms second-round bid for Lloyds’ branches http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15601351
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Good post, we are watching with interest too. We have a slightly different perspective – not being legal bods of any description. Our interest is wondering about the impact ABS and all associated changes on things like client data protection and security etc.
I talked about it briefly on our legl blog, because being in Security, we keenly follow the ICO and data breaches and where they seem to crop up. The NHS does seem to have skewed the data somewhat(!) but Insurance sector for instance, has raised more than an eyebrow at the ICO and there has been a level of speculation about the combining legal and insurance in a kind of one stop shop approach. But the potential for off-shoring services, as has been discussed widely, could have secruity implications and the public are already far too trusting with their personal data.
Basically, differing business culture and practice from traditionally owned legal practices potenitally not having the level of understanding of security that solicitors have, who are already understanding ISO27001 and using it ensure good policy and process.
Clearly I am not talking about the Co Op and Blacklaws venture, but about the wider issues and challenges.
We will be following your blog with interest. Ellie