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Co-op Legal Services first to launch as an ABS

It could be the worst public relations move of the century for large organisations to cannibalise firms of/individual Solicitors. This plan simply hasnt been thought through carefully or advised on properly. Do organisations like the Co-op believe for one moment that the Solicitors who work for them will be transformed and morphed into more honest, sincere individuals, who will have more integrity just because they work for them? One only has to see how many complaints there are each year about Solicitors, to realise the answer to that. The need to invest long term in an enormous complaints handling department will outweigh any short-term benefits on that issue alone. How is the key problem of cost for services going to be dealt with when complaints are so serious that liability insurance costs of paying out on complaints affect the costs of, say, the Co-op's legal services. What about alienating half of their existing client-base? If the Co-op are considering offering representation in litigation cases , divorce and children act advice and services, and start to represent one party against the other, it is logical that the 'losing' party and their family and friends will probably never want to shop in the Co-op or buy any of its services again. The risk of losing a significant section of its grocery-buying client base is so significant, that the Co-op and other large grocers should shelve their legal services plans or do an entire re-think very soon.

30-Mar-2012

11:02 am