Insights from the Lifetime Legal Helpline:

Top Legal Concerns Affecting Your Clients in 2024

As we move through 2024, the Lifetime Legal Helpline continues to provide invaluable insights into the legal concerns of your clients. With call volumes increasing by 107% from January to July, we’ve uncovered significant trends.

The Lifetime Legal Advice Line: A Valuable Resource

Our advice line offers free, impartial legal guidance, designed to eliminate concerns about high costs and the inconvenience of traditional solicitor appointments, saving your clients both time and money. As long as they are members, your clients will benefit from unlimited access to expert legal advice over the phone, covering a wide range of legal matters.

Breaking Down the Call Categories

We’ve categorised calls into three main areas: business (5%), personal (41%), and property and estate (54%). The latter category, which includes property, tenancies, wills, probate, and powers of attorney, clearly dominates, highlighting a strong focus on property-related legal matters.

Property-Related Trends on the Rise

The most notable trend is the increase in property-related enquiries, peaking in July when they accounted for 24% of all calls. This increase reflects growing legal concerns in property transactions and disputes. As an estate agent, you can leverage this trend by proactively addressing common issues, enhancing client communication, and providing access to expert legal advice through resources like the Lifetime Legal advice line.

Residential Tenancies: A Growing Concern

Calls regarding residential tenancies showed a consistent increase, climbing from 11% of all calls in January to 23% in June. This trend suggests that tenant and landlord issues are becoming more common and potentially more complex.

Wills, Probate, and Powers of Attorney: An Interesting Pattern

We observed a high of 24% of all calls related to wills, probate, and powers of attorney in February, which decreased to 6% in June. Interestingly, when analysing the number of free wills written during the same period, we noticed a relationship where fewer calls corresponded to more free wills being written. This may suggest that clients are being advised directly by the Wills team and then proactively creating their wills, also available free of charge for Lifetime Legal members.

Other Legal Concerns: Personal and Business Matters

While property-related issues dominate, our helpline data reveals important trends in other legal areas. Personal contract and consumer law queries showed fluctuations, peaking at 16% in July, indicating a growing demand for consumer rights advice. Personal employment law enquiries dramatically increased from 1% in January to 8% in July, reflecting rising workplace legal concerns. Business-related calls, although less frequent, were consistent in business contract and consumer law, peaking at 2% over the period. These trends emphasise the diverse legal needs of your clients, highlighting the value of comprehensive legal support.

Maximising the Benefits of Lifetime Legal Membership

As an estate agent using Smart Compliance, you can inform your clients about the benefits of our legal advice helpline. This invaluable resource is available for both personal and business-related legal enquiries, ensuring your clients receive support on a wide range of legal matters.

For estate agents not yet using Smart Compliance, now is the perfect time to consider partnering with us. By choosing Smart Compliance, you can offer your clients access to the Lifetime Legal advice line, along with many additional benefits. This service is available free for three months following their AML check with Smart Compliance.

Don’t miss the opportunity to enhance your service offering and provide your clients with expert legal support when they need it most.