Shoplaw has launched its web portal that helps people find a lawyer that meets their needs and budget, saying New Brunswick consumers are now the only Canadians that have access to such a service.
The Fredericton company was formed by law school grad Randy Campbell to add transparency and choice to the process of selecting a lawyer. The site now offers up-front, fixed-fee prices for 21 lawyers in southern New Brunswick.
Shoplaw was one of the 12 semi-finalists in the recent Breakthru competition in New Brunswick. In an exceptionally strong field of competitors, it didn’t make the final five, but Campbell is now proceeding with the project and has brought its product to market.
“Price transparency is a community service,” said Campbell in a statement. “Lawyers on Shoplaw have, on average, 17-years’ experience and are community-minded. Many volunteer, run free legal advice clinics and do pro bono work too. Providing price transparency is just another way for them to serve our community.”
Shoplaw offers consumers two ways to find a lawyer. First, for such common services as home purchases, wills, incorporations and co-habitation agreements, consumers can instantly compare prices, experience and reputations. Standardized service packages describe exactly what’s included in the lawyers’ price, and there are hundreds of verifiable reviews.
For consumers who need a custom solution, Shoplaw offers a free-personal-shopping-service. Consumers fill out a form describing the situation. Then, Shoplaw submits the issue to all the relevant local lawyers. Lawyers who do not have a conflict are invited to contact the consumer directly.
In researching its market, Shoplaw surveyed more than 800 legal service consumers, and learned that 83 percent find it frustrating, annoying, or scary to shop for a lawyer. These results were mirrored by a recent government research effort exploring the legal services market in the United Kingdom. Regulators in the U.K. are now reviewing proposals for mandatory price-transparency for certain services.
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After conducting its market analysis in late 2015, Shoplaw contacted about 600 private practice lawyers in southern New Brunswick and identified 11 access-to-justice advocates willing to provide price transparency to consumers. It beta-tested the product in the summer of 2016. The company followed this up with further market research, calling more than 9,000 New Brunswickers to collect 827 verifiable lawyer reviews.
In the past winter, its customer discovery has continued as it contacted about 600 lawyers again and identified an additional 10 willing to provide price transparency to consumers.
“Some people see access to justice as just an affordability issue,” said Campbell. “It’s more complicated than that. There are many barriers to accessing legal services, and the lack of transparent marketplace information is one. Consumers know they are at a disadvantage when they try to shop for legal services.”
He credits lawyers in New Brunswick for participating with Shoplaw to create a transparent marketplace.
For example, he cited Jennifer Larson, a lawyer in Saint John. She believes that “especially in family law, at a time when lives are in flux, we hope to provide some certainty by being transparent with a set-fee for certain legal services.”
