Legal Services in Scotland: Consumer Survey (1992) - Research Findings

DescriptionIdentifies knowledge of and accessibility to legal services main sources of advice, levels of satisfaction and knowledge of complaints procedure.
ISBN
Official Print Publication Date
Website Publication DateDecember 29, 1998
Legal Studies Research Findings No. 1 (1994)
Legal Services in Scotland: Consumer Survey ( 1992)

ANN MILLAR AND SUE MORRIS

Publisher The Scottish OfficePrice £5.00
A survey of public knowledge, access and use of legal services was undertaken in 1992 in order to obtain up-to-date information. A nationally representative sample of 2,439 households participated in the survey and this bulletin sets out the key information obtained from the survey interviews. The survey, which was commissioned by The Scottish Office Legal Studies Research Group, was undertaken by The MVA Consultancy.
Main findings
  • The evaluation found that the schemes had facilitated the granting of bail to accused persons who would otherwise have been remanded in custody in 19% of the cases in Edinburgh Sheriff Court and 29% in Glasgow Sheriff Court.
  • There was no greater incidence of alleged bail abuse among accused people who were released on bail on the basis of positive information provided by the bail officers than among those granted bail but for whom positive information was absent or irrelevant.
  • Those on bail who were 25 years or older and who had no convictions in the previous three years were found to present a low risk of being charged with further offending whilst on bail.
  • The research showed that the costs of producing bail information reports in Glasgow and Edinburgh were broadly comparable. The schemes did not result, overall, in appreciable cost-savings to the criminal justice system, for a number of reasons. However evidence was found that they decreased the cost of court appearances by reducing: the time per case spent in court; and the need for the cost of overnight remands.
  • Good working relationships with courts users (such as fiscals, sheriffs and defence agents) were shown to be essential both in the planning of bail services and their operation.
  • Effective liaison arrangements with other service providers enhanced the reliability and credibility of schemes.
  • There was evidence that better targeting of cases could be achieved when adequate information was provided by fiscals about the cases for which bail was to be opposed.
Introduction
This bulletin provides a summary of a report produced by The MVA Consultancy for the Legal Studies Research Group of The Scottish Office in 1992. The MVA report is based on a consumer survey of knowledge, accessibility and use of legal services in Scotland and was commissioned to provide up-to-date information about an area in which there had been little large-scale research since the Royal Commission's survey 1 in 1978 of public attitudes and experiences in relation to legal problems and legal services in Scotland.
The MVA consumer survey was informed by a number of previous studies 2 and built upon research by Pinpoint into the location of and access to solicitors in Scotland published by The Scottish Office Central Research Unit in 1990 3. That study found that 98% of the population in Scotland is within either 5 miles (urban Districts) or 10 miles (rural Districts) of at least one solicitor's office. It also showed that around 10% of the population in Scotland's rural Districts live outwith a 10 mile radius from at least 2 different solicitors' firms.
The Pinpoint study, however, focused solely on legal services provided by solicitors' firms. Legal services are undertaken by a wide variety of institutions, organisations and agencies including the Faculty of Advocates, law centres, advice agencies (for example Citizen's Advice Bureaux and Money Advice Centres). There are others which do not exist primarily to provide legal advice but do so in some instances, for example, voluntary organisations, trades unions, motoring associations and professional bodies.
Furthermore, the research on location of and access to solicitors in Scotland did not collect sufficient information to enable full analysis of access. Thus factors that can have an important effect on access, such as the extent of the general public's knowledge of legal services in their locality, their ability to travel and the availability of public transport, their use of legal services and their expectations of the services received and whether they were satisfied with them, remained unexamined.
The specific aims of the survey of legal services were:
  • to establish levels of knowledge about the provision of legal services;
  • to identify the accessibility of legal services and to determine how far it is reasonable to travel to seek legal advice;
  • to identify the main sources of advice and the use made of these services;
  • to establish levels of satisfaction with the legal services received;
  • to examine the extent of knowledge of complaints procedures.
The survey was intended to encompass legal services provided by a range of organisations, including but not restricted to solicitors' firms, and obtained information about different respondents with differing characteristics, in particular persons who had used legal services in 1991, those who had not used legal services in 1991, those living in cities, urban areas, small towns and rural areas.
Limitations of the data
It was not possible as part of the survey design to check respondents' perceived knowledge of the legal services available to them with the actual provision of legal services in their areas. The survey results in relation to knowledge of legal services, therefore, should be regarded as measures of public perceptions of the provision of legal services rather than a description of what actually exists on the ground. Nevertheless, data on perception can make a valuable contribution to an understanding of the use of legal services.
Knowing about legal services
Finding Legal Services
High levels of awareness of the location of solicitors, Citizens' Advice Bureaux (CABx) and the courts were reported in the survey.
Just over two thirds (67%) of respondents could name the solicitor's office most convenient for them. Among those who had used a solicitor's office during the previous year, this proportion rose to three quarters (75%) while among those who had not, the proportion was rather lower at 62%.
Twenty nine percent of respondents either did not know how many solicitors' offices were in their area or thought there were none. One in ten respondents knew of one and well over half could name more than one solicitor's office in their locality.
Nearly three quarters (71%) of respondents could name the CAB most convenient for them. Among those who had used a CAB during the previous year this proportion was slightly higher (at 77%) than among those who had not, where it was slightly lower (67%).
Over half (54%) of the respondents did not know how many CABx, law centres and advice centres there were in their locality. Around one third (34%) thought there was only one such centre and only 12% knew of more than one in their area.
A very high proportion of respondents (90%) could name the court nearest to their home. This proportion was almost the same for those who had and had not used the court: 92% for users compared to 89% for non-users.
Selecting legal services
The majority of respondents said that they would go to a solicitor under most circumstances. Respondents, however, were more likely to prefer to visit a CAB if they had financial problems, if they had problems with noisy neighbours or if they had purchased faulty goods. Forty three percent of respondents said that they would use other means in the case of noisy neighbours: nearly two thirds of those would prefer to deal with the neighbour personally while just under a quarter (23%) would contact a housing manager. Of the 28% who would use other means in the case of financial problems, nearly three quarters (73%) mentioned relatives or friends.
Table 1 shows the type of legal service that respondents would most prefer to approach for legal advice if they found themselves in a number of hypothetical circumstances.
Table 1
Preferred legal services for different legal problems (%)

Buying or selling a house.

Noisy neighbours

Other housing reports

Divorce

Making a will

Other family problems

Compensation for an accident at work

Other employment problem

Financial problem

Injuries from pavement

Purchase of faulty goods

Solicitor's Office

90

19

41

92

93

72

60

41

21

64

20

CABx

6

32

38

4

2

19

14

30

44

25

58

Law Centre

2

2

1

2

1

3

2

1

1

2

1

Other Advice Agency

1

3

5

1

*

3

5

7

7

2

8

Courts

1

1

*

1

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Other

2

43

15

1

4

3

20

22

28

7

13

Total (1)

102

100

100

101

100

100

101

101

101

100

100

* Percentage less than 1
(1) Percentages may not total 100 due to independent rounding
Availability of choice of legal services
Fifty seven percent of respondents thought that there were about the right number of solicitors' offices to choose from in their locality. Equal proportions (7%) of respondents felt that there were either too few or too many to choose from and the remaining 29% had no opinion about the choice of solicitors' offices available in their area.
The survey sample allowed information on choice of legal services to be analysed according to whether respondents lived in four different types of location in Scotland - city, urban, small town or rural. Compared to the responses on choice of legal services for the survey as a whole, small town dwellers were most likely to think that there were too few solicitor's offices in their locality to offer enough choice. Respondents from city and rural areas, on the other hand, were most likely to think that there was too much choice available.
While well over half of all survey respondents thought that there were about the right number of solicitors to provide choice, fewer respondents (40%) thought that there were about the right number of CABx to offer a choice of service in their locality and just under one third (32%) felt there were too few to offer a choice. Less than 1% thought that there were too many CABx in their area and the remaining 28% had no opinion on this topic.
The majority of respondents (66%) said that they would not think of going to the courts for legal advice at all. Only 5% of respondents were at all likely to seek legal advice from the courts. The overwhelming majority (74%) would not think of using the courts for legal advice because they were unaware that the courts provided legal services.
Choosing legal services
Over half (54%) of respondents would ask family, friends or colleagues for advice when choosing a solicitor. A fifth (20%) would either go to the most convenient office or one that they happened to see, while 10% said they would consult Yellow Pages for this purpose.
The most common approach to choosing which CAB to visit was via Yellow Pages. 39% of respondents said they would choose this method. Just over one third (34%) would go to the most convenient CAB. Very few respondents would ask friends, family or colleagues for advice when making a choice -only 22% cited this method. When those respondents who had used a CAB were asked how they chose the one they had most recently visited, nearly half (45%) had consulted a CAB they had just happened to see.
How accessible are legal services?
Whether or not legal services are used depends not only on people knowing that the service exists but also on how accessible the services are to potential users. Accessibility can be measured in a number of ways. In this survey, respondents were asked how far they would be willing to travel to obtain legal services; how they would travel to these services, i.e. modes of transport; and about the preferred method of receiving the service, for example, through face-to-face interviews or by telephone.
The survey found that overall accessibility to legal services in Scotland was considered to be reasonably good. The majority of respondents considered themselves to be within reasonable distances of solicitors and advice centres. Most reported that they lived or worked within one mile of the office of the most convenient solicitor; only 15% lived or worked more than 5 miles away. In the case of CABx and other advice centres, most people lived or worked within 2 miles of such a centre; 25% lived or worked 5 or more miles away.
How far would people travel?
Three out of 10 respondents considered 1-2 miles to be a reasonable distance to travel to a solicitor's office. Four out of 10 were prepared to travel the same distance to advice centres. However, while 20% would be prepared to travel more than 11 miles to solicitors, only 5% would travel that far to advice centres. Table 2 gives details.
Table 2
Views on reasonable distances to travel for legal services

Miles prepared to travel

Solicitors (%)

CABx (%)

One to two

30

39

Three to five

23

21

Six to ten

20

18

Eleven or more

19

5

Don't know

9

17

Total

100

100

The distances that people were prepared to travel for legal services varied widely but were broadly comparable with the actual distances between their homes and solicitors and advice centres. For example, 85% of those who had used a solicitor lived within a distance that they considered reasonable. Respondents living in rural areas were willing to travel greater distances for legal services (and presumably for other services).
How would people travel?
Fifty nine percent of those who had used a solicitor would normally travel there by car and 17% would normally use a bus service. This compares to the 43% of advice centre users who travelled by car and the 28% who went by bus.
Table 3 gives a full breakdown of the findings from respondents who had used legal services in 1991 for solicitors and advice centres.
Table 3
Methods of travel to legal services
Means of transportDestination Solicitor's Offices: (% of users)Destination: Advice Centres (% of users)

Car

5943

Bus

1728

Train

31

On foot

2026

Other

222

Total

100100
Table 4
Reasonable distance to legal services by mode of travel and type of advice (%)
Miles prepared to travel

CAR

BUS

TRAIN

FOOT

Advice centre

Solicitor

Advice centre

Solicitor

Advice centre

Solicitor

Advice centre

Solicitor

One to two

35

20

46

45

23

40

66

58

Three to five

22

26

30

21

30

25

29

32

Six to ten

34

27

19

29

30

5

2

6

Eleven and over

9

27

5

5

18

35

3

4

Total

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

About one in 4 respondents were within walking distance of either their nearest solicitor's office or advice centre. Accessibility to different means of transport, for example car ownership, would be expected to affect the distances which people would be prepared to travel to obtain legal services.
Table 4 gives comparative figures from the survey to show how respondents travel to legal service providers and whether these are advice centres or solicitor's offices. The table shows that people's perceptions of reasonable distances differed by whether they were travelling to a solicitor or advice centre.
Respondents were prepared to accept greater travelling distances to solicitors. This was particularly the case with car and train users.
Nearly half of those respondents using bus services and roughly two thirds of pedestrians felt that one or two miles was a reasonable distance to travel for legal advice. Not surprisingly, respondents travelling by car or train were much more likely to accept distances of 6 miles or over as reasonable, especially in relation to solicitor's services.
Receiving legal advice over the telephone
Legal advice is commonly provided through face-to-face interviews in the solicitor's office or advice centre. The survey, however, sought views on the acceptability of obtaining legal advice over the telephone. The majority (85%) of respondents had a telephone available for their use; thus 15% did not have ready access to legal services by telephone.
There were some major differences amongst different sectors of the population with around one third of those with lower incomes not having ready access to a telephone. Despite relatively high availability of telephones, views were quite polarised about the acceptability of this method of receiving legal advice as Table 5 shows.
Table 5
Acceptability of receiving legal adviceby telephone

Degree of acceptability

Those who had used legal services in 1991

Those who had not used legal services in 1991

Very happy

17

11

Fairly happy

34

28

Neither

4

5

Fairly unhappy

13

14

Not happy at all

32

42

Total

100

100

A substantial proportion (51%) of all respondents said that they were 'fairly unhappy' or 'not happy at all' about receiving legal advice by telephone. In the case of those respondents who had not used legal services, this proportion rose to 56%. Respondents who lived in small towns and rural areas, not surprisingly, were the most likely to consider advice by telephone to be acceptable: while a quarter of those respondents were not at all happy with telephone advice, in city and urban areas these proportions rose to 30% and 40% respectively.
While all of those who said they would be happy to receive advice by telephone felt it was acceptable for being given factual information, only about one in 10 felt it was also acceptable for consultation and only one in 50 felt it was acceptable for complex legal negotiations.
Using legal services
In approximately 1 in every 5 households contacted, someone had used legal services during 1991 4. While three quarters of the sample areas were identified as having between 1 in 4 and 1 in 6 households that had used legal services in 1991, there were other areas in the sample in which very different rates of use were identified. For example, in one area with a high percentage of owner occupiers, one household in every 2 had used legal services in 1991 compared to a ratio of one household in more than ten in an inner city local authority housing area.
Nearly three quarters of those who had used legal services in 1991 had gone to solicitors. One in five households had made use of a CAB for legal advice and just over one in ten had made use of legal services through an insurance company. Very few of those respondents who had used legal services had approached either law centres or the courts for legal advice as Table 6 shows.
Table 6
Use of legal services by survey respondents
Legal Services Used

Percentage of respondents(1)

Solicitors

71

CABx

20

Insurance Companies

11

Other Advice Agencies

6

Trades Unions

3

Family/Friends

3

Community representatives

2

Professional bodies

2

Trade/Motoring Associations

1

Community workers

1

Trading Standards Offices

1

Community Associations

1

Court Staff

1

Someone else

*

Voluntary Agencies

*

Law Centres

*

None of these

1

* Percentages less than 1 (1) Percentages do not total 100 due to multiple response
Use of solicitors varied by socio-economic group; virtually all (97%) professional or managerial households had used a solicitor at some time in the past compared to 94% of skilled manual and non-manual households and just over three quarters (76%) of semi-skilled, unskilled and benefit-sustained households.
Use for CABx was lower than use of solicitors across all socio-economic groups. Differences in reverse order to those for solicitors were evident. For example, nearly two thirds (64%) of households in semi-skilled, unskilled and benefit-sustained households had used a CAB at some time in the past compared to just under one half (45%) of skilled manual and unskilled manual households and to just under one quarter (23%) of professional and managerial households.
Looking at the use of legal services by sex, 91% of men had used a solicitor compared to 85% of women. In contrast, women were more likely to have used a CAB: around one half (52%) of women in the sample had sought legal advice from a CAB whereas for men this proportion dropped to 46%.
What legal matters arose?
Of those who had sought legal advice during 1991, the highest proportion had done so in order to buy or sell a house. Nearly one in ten had sought advice in relation to social security and the same proportion had done so in relation to other financial matters. Table 7 gives details of the legal matters on which advice was sought by survey respondents.
Table 7
Issues on which legal advice was sought
Legal Services Used

Percentage of users(1)

Buying or selling a house

28

Housing

7

Employment

5

Social Security

5

Divorce

8

Other family matters

7

Debt

2

Other financial matters

9

Wills, trusts, etc

11

Damages, personal injury, etc

13

Consumer claims

4

Criminal prosecution

5

Immigration

*

Other

9

* Percentage less than 1
(1) Percentages do not total 100 due to multiple response
Experiences of legal services
Past use of legal services
Nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents had used a solicitor at some time whereas only one quarter (25%) had previously used a CAB or other advice agency. Of those who had sought legal advice, nearly three quarters (71%) had had their problems successfully resolved. Just over one fifth of cases were still in progress at the time of the survey and 7% of issues had not been resolved. For the latter category of legal service users, the most common reason for non-resolution was that the adviser had told them that nothing could be done. This was the reason in nearly half (49%) of unresolved cases.
Selecting a legal advisor
Knowledge of an advisor, whether by previous use or through a recommendation was clearly the most important factor determining the selection of a legal advisor. This factor was ranked as the most important by over 50% of respondents who had used legal services. Survey respondents who had not used legal services in 1991 responded similarly but put more emphasis on cost factors. This perhaps indicates that the full cost of legal advice may be a deterrent to taking any action for some potential consumers of legal services.
The cost factor was also more important for advice centre users than for those who had gone to a solicitor and to lower income rather than higher income consumers of legal services. There were some differences in the weight attached to the various cost factors by people living in different areas, and ease of approach, for example, was more important in rural than in other types of areas.
Paying for legal services
Charges for the legal services provided for respondents to the survey ranged widely, from £1 to £7,000. One third of all charges were £100 or less with the average legal service charge at £607 and the median at £330. The highest proportion of users (40%) had paid for the services themselves. Services were provided free of charge to one third of all users. Sixteen percent had received legal aid for all or part of the expenses. A large majority of those who had received no legal aid (87%) said that they had been able to afford the cost of their legal services. Table 8 provides a breakdown of liability for legal fees.
Table 8
Liability for legal service charges
Liability

% of legal service users

Paid by self

40

Received legal aid for total cost

13

Received legal aid for part cost

3

Free service provided

33

Service provided by third party

8

Don't know

3

Total

100

Resolving the problem
While the majority (nearly three quarters) of legal service users considered that the legal advisor consulted had resolved the problem, 7% (62 people) did not share this view. The remaining respondents reported that the matter was still ongoing. Almost half of the 62 people who had not been able to get a legal matter sorted out had been advised that nothing could be done about it. A further 10 had resolved the issue themselves, 7 people reported that they had been unable to sort a matter out as a result of inadequate advice, and only 2 respondents specifically mentioned that the issue was not resolved due to insufficient funds being available to proceed.
In 71% of cases, respondents reported that the matter had been resolved by the straightforward completion of a transaction, such as a house purchase. A further 11% of matters were resolved out of court, 9% through the courts and 5% through conciliation. The remainder through other methods, for example a tribunal or arbitration. Table 9 shows how legal problems identified in the survey were resolved.
Table 9
Resolution of the legal matter
Liability

% of legal service users

Transaction completed

71

Settled out of court

11

Resolved through the courts

9

Resolved by conciliation

9

Resolved by a tribunal

2

Resolved through arbitration

1

Other

1

Total

100

Nearly half of the cases (48%) reported by respondents to the survey were resolved within one month: 13% had been resolved on the day advice was sought; 10% within one week of seeking advice; and the remaining 25% within one month. A further 45% of cases reported in the survey were completed within one year of seeking advice and only 3% of cases took more than one year to resolve. The remaining 4% of cases were still ongoing at the time of the survey.
Contact with legal advisor
Initial contact with the person giving the legal advice was predominantly made by telephone or by a visit to the office. In only 3% of cases was the initial contact made by letter.
It appears to have been most usual to have a small number of meetings with the advisor.
Table 10
Number of meetings with the Legal Advisor
No of Meetings

% of legal service users

None

1

One

26

Two

29

Three

20

Four

9

Five

2

Six to ten

9

Eleven and over

3

76% of respondents reported 3 meetings or less, with one or two meetings being the most common experience.
83% of respondents who had more than one meeting reported seeing the same advisor each time. The survey also sought information on the length of time spent in meetings with advisors. Table 11 gives the breakdown.
Table 11
Duration of meetings
Minutes

% of Legal Service Users

Less than five

5

Six to ten

14

Eleven to fifteen

18

Sixteen to twenty

22

Twenty one to thirty

27

Thirty one to sixty

10

More than sixty

4

The survey also asked whether respondents were aware of the status of their legal advisor.
60% of those using legal services in 1991 had been told of the advisor's status. In the case of solicitors, 98% were seen by qualified personnel; 74% reported seeing partners, 24% a solicitor employed in the firm and 2% a trainee. With advice centres, in the largest proportion of cases (48%), respondents were seen by voluntary advisors; 34% reported having been seen by legally qualified advisors and 14% by an unqualified employed advisor.
Satisfaction with legal services
Almost all (91%) of those who had used legal services in 1991 were very or fairly satisfied with the service they had received. This high level of satisfaction did not vary greatly between solicitor and CABx /advice centre users.
The ability to deal effectively with the problem was considered the most important single factor by the highest proportion of people (34%). Many respondents gave a high ranking to factors concerning the way a problem was dealt with such as the fact that the advisor was helpful, easy to approach, explained matters and answered questions clearly while keeping them informed of progress. Taken together these factors were seen as important by over 50% of legal service users. As shown in Table 8 below, costs were not generally ranked as a main priority.
Table 12
Most important factor for satisfactory legal service provision
Factors governing levels of satisfaction% of respondents who had used legal services in 1991
Ability to solve my problems

34

Helpfulness

17

Explanation of legal matter and
intended action

11

Easy to approach/ easy to relate to

11

Answering my questions

8

Keeping me informed of progress

8

Actual cost

5

Time given by advisor

2

Punctuality

2

Frequency of contact

1

Total

100

There was generally a high level of satisfaction with all the attributes of the advisor as shown above. Overall, more than three quarters of all users were very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the attributes of the service received. The lowest levels of satisfaction were recorded in relation to costs and provision of information.
Users of legal services who had paid for or contributed to payments for legal services were asked whether they thought they had got good value for money. Overall nearly half (48%) thought they had obtained 'fairly good' and a further 28% 'very good' value for money.
Views on the legal profession
The survey identified high levels of satisfaction with the services received from solicitors. In the majority of cases views on the legal profession did not change following use of a solicitor to obtain legal services. Where views did change, however, more than one third of users regarded the profession more favourably as a result of their experience. Eighty two percent of those who had used solicitors said that they would recommend their advisor to friends and relatives and 85% said they would go back to the same advisor if they had another legal problem.
Questions were also asked about the procedures for, and experiences of, making a complaint about legal services. Only 13% of users reported having been told by their advisor of any complaints procedure.
Despite the high levels of satisfaction with legal services recorded by the survey, 8% of respondents who had used a solicitor said that they had at some time felt really annoyed about the way their legal advisor had handled their problem. Of those, just under two thirds (47 people) said they had felt like making an official complaint to someone. Only 21 of these knew who to complain to, most mentioning the Law Society of Scotland. 16 people had actually gone ahead and made a complaint.
Just over half of all users questioned thought that any complaint about legal services would be dealt with very or quite thoroughly. Almost one third, however, felt that they did not know how thoroughly the complaint would be dealt with and 18% were sceptical about the complaints process. About half of the users of legal services had heard of the Legal Services Ombudsman.
About the survey
This survey was based on face-to-face interviews with adults aged 16 years and over from a sample of households throughout Scotland. The sample was selected from 40 geographical clusters chosen to reflect national socio-demographic characteristics. Each cluster included approximately 60 interviews of which 25, on average, were users of legal services in 1991.
Contact was made with 4,491 households and brief screening questions asked to determine the extent of usage of legal services during 1991. All individuals who reported that they or their household had used such services were interviewed, as were individuals from a one in 3 sample of the remaining households identified in the screening exercise.
The total achieved sample size was 2,439, all of whom were asked questions relating to their knowledge of the legal services available to them and their ease of access to these services. 951 respondents in the sample had used legal services and were thus asked, in addition, about use and satisfaction with the legal services provided. Interviews were carried out between March and May 1992 by representatives of The MVA Consultancy.
It was recognised that given the nature of the topic, analysis would be required at both household and individual levels. The survey thus contained questions to seek views at these two levels. Information relating to specific instances of the use of legal services was restricted to one instance per household but all types of instance were recorded and one was selected as subject matter for the interview on the basis of the availability of the appropriate respondent and a prioritisation of the types of case and types of legal service.
1 Royal Commission on Legal Services (1980) Legal problems and legal services: public attitudes and experience, Cmnd 7846-1, Appendix 4, HMSO, Edinburgh
2 Scottish Law Commission (1970) 'Public Attitudes to the Legal Profession'; Paterson and Bain (1986) 'Access to Legal Services in Rural Scotland'; Scottish Consumer Council (1986) 'I'm Not Happy With My Solicitor'; Paterson (1987) 'Evaluating Legal Needs', 127 Scolag 58; Scottish Consumer Council (1987) 'Report of a Survey on the Use of Solicitors'.
3 Pinpoint Data Analysis and Presentation (1990) 'Location of and Access to Solicitors in Scotland'
4 This rate of use is fairly similar to that obtained by the Scottish Consumer Council in their 1987 study on the use of solicitor's services (ibid).
For additional copies of this Research Findings contact:
The Scottish Office Central Research Unit
Room 306
St Andrews House
Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Telephone: 0131 244 2112

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