Need legal advice? Try a website that's laying down the law on costs

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A new 'lawyer supermarket' offers quotes for services from conveyancing to getting a divorce. Sean Coughlan puts it to the test The concept of the price comparison website is being applied to lawyers - casting light on that most difficult of legal questions: "How much will it cost?"
Since many people only use a lawyer infrequently, when they do have to look for legal advice it's difficult to know what constitutes a fair price and what is a rip-off. And for anyone beginning legal proceedings, there is a worry about the size of the final bill.
But a new website, takelegaladvice.com, is aiming to drag prices into the open. It is offering an online quote for law firms, much in the way financial services websites do for insurance, mortgages or personal loans. It's a kind of lawyer supermarket.
"Looking for a lawyer is more complicated than using a website to compare car insurance, but the principle is essentially the same," says Derek Bedlow, its managing editor.
The idea was sparked by the experience of running a divorce advice website, says Mr Bedlow. "That was inundated with queries about looking for a lawyer from people who weren't sure about where to get objective advice."
At present the website, offering quotes from a panel of about 300 law firms, claims to be the only one of its kind in Britain.
But Mr Bedlow says it's a taste of things to come with the forthcoming deregulation of legal services. The government says it wants buying legal services to be as straightforward as "buying a can of beans" - and a regulatory shake-up will allow a much wider range of companies to sell legal services, in a reform that has been dubbed "Tesco law". As such, Mr Bedlow says that comparison websites, such as takelegaladvice.com, will become part of the market, particularly as more price-aware brands enter the field.
And a little mystery shopping by Guardian Money on takelegaladvice.com website shows how much difference already exists between fees.
The Test
We registered details on the website and then submitted enquiries about particular legal issues. We asked for quotes from lawyers on buying and selling a house, getting divorced and suffering an industrial injury.
The results are not instant, but within 48 hours we received quotes from 14 law firms willing to work for a client based in London.