Online legal services have opened up cost-effective and efficient routes to get help with some of the toughest legal challenges we face.
However, unfortunately, they’ve also flung the door open to unscrupulous rip off firms, which could leave us far worse off. The CMA has found some worrying practices and opened a consultation to explore how to better protect people.
Many of the services that we traditionally ask a solicitor for help with can actually be done by anyone – like divorce, will writing and probate.
It means that technically we can tackle it alone, and if we want a bit of help without the cost of a lawyer, we can go to an unregulated adviser. There are some innovative and effective firms operating in this area, however, unfortunately, there are also some rip-off companies too.
Will writers
The CMA highlighted that some will writers may advertise cut-price advice, but as people go through the process, the costs can mount unexpectedly. Some also use potentially unfair terms, so they might write off any liability of the adviser, fail to offer the right to cancel, or automatically appoint the firm as an executor.
This makes no sense. If a will or family relationships are complex, it can be useful to use a professional executor – despite the fact that they come with a significant fee. However, if things are this complex, you will usually need legal advice from a professional to make sure the will is watertight – so this kind of service is likely to be inappropriate. If your arrangements are simple enough to use an unregulated service, paying for an executor can be a huge and needless expense.
There have also been signs of vulnerable older people being put under pressure by some firms to sign up to will services, so they could be paying more than they need to for something that’s fundamentally wrong for them. It’s something that has rung alarm bells in the pre-paid probate arena too.
Pre-paid probate
These are fairly new products, in which you pay in advance for probate – which is the legal process of managing your estate when you die. It can be a time-consuming and complicated business, it kicks in even when someone’s affairs are very straightforward, and can be pretty thorny when they’re not. It’s easy to understand why someone may want to spare their loved ones the hassle and expense. However, the CMA has warned that, in some cases, they may fall short on both fronts.
Some services aren’t clear about what costs are covered in the up-front fee. Some are being sold to people who don’t need to go through probate, and some are being sold to people who need specific help from a solicitor, for whom these plans won’t help. It can mean probate takes even longer – which can leave your loved ones high and dry while they wait for your estate to be settled, so they can’t pay bills or sell the property. Even more alarmingly, money held by these firms may not be adequately protected, so it could be lost entirely if they go under.
Quickie divorces
Online divorce services have been around for a while, but took off during the pandemic. The CMA is concerned that some of them may be making misleading promises about how simple people can expect the process to be, and what it’s likely to cost. It can mean divorcing couples have no idea what help they can expect or what they will end up paying for.
It also came across firms falling short on all sorts of levels – including using the wrong forms, putting details in incorrectly, sending papers to the court late and communicating poorly.
Even the most straightforward of divorces can become a horrible headache with hiccups along the way, and if you try to use them for a more involved divorce, there’s a chance that things can be missed too.
For divorces where there are complex pensions to consider, one possible risk is that one of the most valuable assets of the marriage is completely overlooked or valued wrongly – which can have implications for the rest of your life.
Sarah Coles is head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown
