Improving vulnerable consumers' access to legal services

Researchers from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) have worked with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to explore how people access legal services and improve the uptake among vulnerable, low socio-economic status individuals.

Updating existing frameworks

Many of the existing research frameworks for the legal market have grouped consumers based on their legal issues or demographic variables such as age. However, such approaches may provide limited insights as not all consumers of a specific legal service or in a particular age band will have the same requirements or preferences.

To provide a different approach, the Bayes team – which comprised Irene Scopelliti, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at Bayes and Zachary Estes, Professor of Marketing at Bayes – carried out five independent studies that each built on the previous one.

This included reviewing existing frameworks; carrying out an in-depth study to assess consumers’ legal needs and experiences; developing a segmentation framework to classify consumers based on their attitudes, preferences, and behavioural tendencies towards legal services; examining Black and ethnic minority consumers’ and low socio-economic status (SES) individuals’ understanding of, attitudes toward, and barriers to accessing legal services; and finally, testing potential policy interventions designed to improve the way individual consumers in England and Wales perceive their legal needs and access legal services.

Demystifying legal processes

The Bayes researchers found that most consumers find legal services’ communications to be unclear and ineffective, and they also identified the wide range of barriers to using legal services, including consumers’ lack of knowledge – and negative perceptions – about the legal process.

It was also found that consumers often experience a sense of vulnerability after realising they have a legal issue. This heightened vulnerability arises because many do not know very much about legal processes, and they assume using legal services providers is too expensive and not worth the effort. As a result, explaining the legal process and communicating clearly emerged as very important factors to help overcome consumers’ worries and enhance their access to justice.

Professor Scopelliti said:

“Our study with the SRA provides a series of consumer insights that could improve the way legal services are configured. For example, ensuring that the consumer understands the legal process by communicating in a way that is perceived as approachable and jargon-free would strengthen a legal service providers’ offer and increase the likelihood that several market segments will access legal services.”

When exploring which consumers are more likely to be legally vulnerable (less likely to seek legal support when needed), the study found that socio-economic status more strongly affected respondents’ legal experiences, barriers, attitudes and behaviours than ethnicity did. Low socio-economic status respondents are less likely to recognise a legal need and to seek help for that need. This was largely due to a lower sense of legal empowerment and higher anxiety around needing and using legal services.

The researchers tested two interventions to potentially increase vulnerable consumers’ access to legal services. One intervention improved consumers’ understanding of legal issues, but had little effect on their likelihood of using legal services. A second intervention instead aimed to empower consumers by explaining what issues legal service providers can help with; how to search and find help; and ways to pay for that help. This intervention successfully reduced people’s anxiety about the legal process and increased their likelihood of using legal services.

Professor Estes said:

“Our research with the SRA has shown that when considering how people choose and use legal services, we cannot treat consumers as homogeneous groups based on their demographics or legal needs. We also found that more information about the legal system can reduce people’s legal anxiety, empower them, and boost their confidence in the legal system, and this is particularly helpful for low socio-economic status individuals.

“We are now collaborating with the SRA to consider how this may affect their Transparency Rules, which require firms to publish specified information about the scope and cost of legal services, and about complaints and regulated status. They will also consider how to further mitigate legal vulnerability and anxieties moving forward.”