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In recent years, England has suffered its worst recession this century and this has inevitably affected solicitors in many areas of their work. The volume of domestic conveyancing halved between 1988 and 1992. Prices fell in real terms between 1986 and 1993 by 45 per cent. I suggest that it was these events, not the abolition of scale fees, that was "the biggest disaster to hit the legal profession in the last two decades", to quote Mr Sayer.
An equally profound change occurred in the financial services industry, where keen competition developed for the sale of a wide range of complex financial products. This development gave financial institutions a considerably enhanced influence over all aspects of the housing market.
It is clear that solicitors in England have been faced with serious difficulties in recent years, and many have become bankrupt. But there is no basis for assuming that things would have been different had scale fees still been in place. On the contrary, in March 1994, a report of the English Law Society's special working party on conveyancing services included the following findings -
"because of the state of the market, a compulsory or recommended scale of fees will be undercut while competitive advantage can be gained by doing so."
"We have concluded that compulsory and recommended fee scales would be unworkable and ineffective."
"Research has yet to establish a link between unrealistically low prices and higher-than-average levels of complaints or indemnity claims."
These are not the conclusions of those who "do not understand the conveyancing procedure or are blind to reality," but of members of the English Law Society's own special working party on conveyancing.
The statements in Mr Sayer's letter about corners being cut, claims against the Indemnity Fund increasing, and the activities of one firm in South London, are not demonstrated by the writer to be related in any way to the abolition of scale fees. Moreover the former chairman of the special working party on conveyancing, Mr Paul Marsh, wrote only last month that -