A Little Help Please

Seems like a good idea as when you need you guys sometimes the bills just keep mounting up and you never seem to know the final fee till it hits ,you so yes I would much prefer this idea, then at least you know the fee from the start .... Do you do wills lol

Thank you Andy-C27!

In relation to your question, yes we draft wills also

Apologies it's not clear to me.  Is this as part of the £350 fee?    I would suggest that a "free" add-on such as this would be positively received.

Hi mrb, 

No, that would be an addition to our services. The £350 fee is for document drafting, for example you need terms and conditions for your business, as part of the service we gather information about your business and advise you as to which clauses should be included in order for the terms to be legally binding and suggest solutions to ensure that the main terms are compliant with your business needs. The document drafting service is more complex than just providing legal advice as all aspects relating to the subject matter of the document will have to be considered. 

We are considering of adding a feature on to our new website where people can just send legal questions they might have and one of our solicitors will reply free of charge.

Thanks

I wouldn't do it free of charge; I would sell it as a membership subscription service so we can tap into it across the year as and when. And as a paid member be entitled to discounted services within that.

I remember talking to a solicitor recently who I know well who is told to charge by the 1/4 hour. So 1 minute over, then that's another 15 mins.

I think unlimited free advice is a risky strategy, too many people want everything for free these days and are unwilling to pay for it. Free consultation makes sense to see if a case or further action is viable, or subscription service as Indizine says makes sense.

I'd be wary of unlimited free legal advice as (in my mind) I'd be dubious of the quality. Having had access to lots of "free" business advice as part of various accountancy services, in hindsight most of it was either duff, low quality or I could have easily sourced myself. Any genuine issues which needed professional advice always came back with a "you'll need to source a specialist in your industry caveat". In other words they didn't know or wouldn't stand by it, so pointless.

Where as the times I've needed legal advice, I've always paid for it, felt I've had a good service and it's achieved the required result, official letters, putting the frighteners on, documentation etc.

Unless you move in to a traffic monetisation model, with the legal content being the traffic driver and hook. But you would need substantial traffic to cover solicitors salaries

I think this is a great idea.

It would offer peace of mind to the client.

Ah I see - ok.  In that case I think Steve & Inizine have covered it off nicely, you just need to make sure what ever route you take that you don't devalue the service and perceived quality.

Free legal advice issue ... halfway house maybe?  And use the material to market your services, push your site higher up the search engine rankings  and boost your visitor numbers?

How about offering to do a limited number of free answers to specific legal issues (eg one a week or once a month) on the basis that the person asking for your help agrees to let you display on the site an anonymous version of both the issue and the expert's answer?  This is similar to what I do for another careers and jobs site.   

Worried or naïve callers sometimes include in their request information that identifies them personally or would jeopardise their situation if it became known to the wrong people.  You'll need to carefully edit the callers' information and the experts' replies before displaying anything on your site to protect the interests of everyone concerned.  I've had to remove, for example, personal information about enquirers' state of health, where they live, their family circumstances, their earlier employers and the rest of it. 

Would you also need to run a security check on your site to ensure no information got leaked to anyone who shouldn't have it?