IRN Research Legal Market Research Reports

Legal Market Research Reports

IRN Research: UK Legal Services Market Intelligence Reports Annual Subscription – £1,400

All our regular legal market research reports are available in a discounted annual subscription. Each PDF report offers a market overview, an analysis of key trends and issues, key supplier profiles, market forecasts and an analysis of original research on the market from IRN.  The research reports cover:

  • Clinical Negligence, £200
  • Conveyancing, £200
  • Personal Injury £200
  • Wills & Probate £200
  • Family Law £200
  • UK Business Law £250
  • UK Legal Services Market £400
  • UK Medico-Legal & Insurance Market £200
  • COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION TO ALL OF THE ABOVE plus the UK Monthly Legal Market Trends bulletin – £1,400 plus VAT, so £1,680 in total.

Organisation-wide access. For further details, orders, and subscriptions contact:

David Mort, dmort@irn-research.com, or pay here.




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UK Conveyancing Market – IRN Legal Market Briefing

The UK Conveyancing Market Briefing 2019 is an annual Legal Market Briefing from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK conveyancing market which has witnessed a period of fluctuating trends in the last few years.

In 2018 as in 2017, IRN Research estimate that the residential conveyancing market declined as the number of property transactions and the number of individuals using conveyancing services fell back compared with 2017. Price pressures, i.e. more fixed fee options, have also been impacting on market value growth. In 2018, the UK residential conveyancing market decreased in value by 2.8% on 2017.

The number of residential property transactions also decreased in 2018 by 2.4% compared to 2017 and this followed a decrease of over 1% in 2017. Provisional figures for the first half of 2019 point to an even larger decrease in 2019. Residential property transactions decreased by 6.6% in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in the previous year. A possible solution to the Brexit confusion in Autumn could help to improve prospects in the latter part of 2019.

The briefing (37pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240.

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UK Legal Services Market Report 2019, 9th edition:

Now in its 9th annual edition, the UK Legal Services Market Trends Report provides a unique detailed market review and analysis of the UK legal services market.

The UK legal services market was valued at £35.1bn in 2018, increasing by 6.3% at current prices on the previous year. When inflation is taken into account then market value increased by 3.7% (constant prices). The number of law firms in the UK has stabilised in recent years at around 12,000, although the business model is changing: almost half of all firms are now incorporated companies and the traditional partnership model has declined dramatically. There are almost 1,300 firms operating as Alternative Business Structures (ABS) in England and Wales, compared to an overall total of over 10,000 law firms in England and Wales.

By far the largest segment in the UK market is legal work for business and commercial affairs (including commercial property) accounting for almost half of total market revenue in 2018 (nearly 47%) and most of the high-value work in this segment is undertaken by the larger law firms. The largest consumer law segment is personal injury/accident/medical negligence work contributing an estimated 11% of UK market revenue, despite the sector facing falling claims numbers and the repercussions of the ban on referral fees.

These and may other facts and findings are presented in this year’s report.

The full report, The UK Legal Services Market 2019 (92pp, 37 figures/tables PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £400. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £480.

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Clinical Negligence Market 2019 – IRN Legal Market Briefing

The UK Clinical Negligence Market Briefing 2019 is the second edition of an annual Legal Market Briefing from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK clinical negligence markets.

The clinical negligence market is estimated to generate over £650 million in gross revenue for law firms in the UK, with gross revenues having risen over the three years up to 2016/17. However, in the latest year, revenue has slipped. Despite efforts to cut the costs of clinical negligence claims, IRN Research still expects that the market will grow in the next year although growth is likely to slow from 2020/21 onwards as changes to the market are introduced, for example fixed recoverable costs for some claims, more mediation, and the rapid resolution and redress scheme for birth injuries.

The briefing (39pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240.

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The Legal Landscape – AN EVER CHANGING PICTURE

The graphic summarises the legal landscape in England and Wales, almost four years after the Legal Services Act came into force. Download our free graphic/description.

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Family Law Market Data Report 2019

The UK Family Law Market Trends Report is the fifth edition of an annual report from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK family law market.

The market bounced back in 2015, after a weak performance in 2014 following the reductions in legal aid, and continued to grow in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, the value of the market grew by an estimated 3.8%, a slightly higher level than the 3.2% recorded in 2017.

The UK family law market value is forecast to increase steadily over the next five years. While divorce cases are expected to increase in 2018, we are anticipating a longer term decline in divorce cases but growth is likely to come from some rises in legal costs, and work in other areas, e.g. legal work for co-habitating couples/civil partnerships, Children Act work, domestic violence work.

The briefing (47pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240.

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UK Business Legal Services Market Report 2019 – IRN Legal Market Briefing

The UK Business Legal Services Market Report is the third edition of an annual Legal Market Report from IRN Research and provides an overview of the market and its core market segments.

UK-based business law firms and chambers generated revenues of around £16bn in 2018, an increase of 4.1% on 2017. Some of this revenue comes from overseas work and the UK market itself is worth between £11bn and £12bn.

Despite steady revenue growth in recent years, the business legal services market is an increasingly competitive one. Many clients of law firms have become competitors as well as clients as more legal work has been taken in-house. Other competitors include accountants, employment and HR consultants, online legal services, industry associations and business groups (although most of these are working with law firms to provide a service), and legal helplines. Alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) such as legal outsourcing companies, flexible lawyer businesses, and legal software and automation businesses, are taking some routine legal work away from law firms, plus starting to add new more added-value services. The larger UK business law firms are facing more competitive pressures from the Big Four accountancy firms – all of these now have separate legal businesses alongside their established business streams. Plus, US law firms expanding in London have provided even more competition.

An IRN Research survey of 160 businesses – 80 large businesses and 80 SMEs – in early 2019 found that a majority expect their demands for legal services to remain the same in the next 18 months but over a third of large businesses and almost one in five small businesses are expecting an increase in their need for external legal advice.

The report is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £350. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £420.  

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Debt-related Legal Services  – IRN Legal Market Report

The Debt-related Legal Services Report 2017 is an annual Legal Market report from IRN Research and provides an overview of two areas of debt-related legal work: legal work for debt recovery and legal work for debt collection.  The market for debt-related legal services in the UK is growing and saw major growth in key areas in 2016, especially general recovery and insolvencies. The market is expected to see relatively strong future growth, based on rising consumer debt levels which will impact directly on consumer debt recoveries and indirectly (via consumer spending) on B2B debt recoveries.

The briefing (86pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £180. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £216.

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UK Maritime, Shipping and Admiralty Law Market – IRN Legal Market Briefing 

The UK Maritime, Shipping and Admiralty Law Market Briefing 2017 is the first edition of an annual Legal Market Briefing from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK maritime, shipping and admiralty (MSA) law market.

The UK is a major global shipping hub and a major global hub for MSA work. The bulk of revenue earned by UK MSA legal practices comes from overseas clients and it is global, rather than UK, economic and shipping trends which drives this market.

This briefing studies the market size and trends, including forecasts of the future, market developments and drivers and profiles 28 key legal firms active in this market.

The briefing (57pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £180. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £216.

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UK Personal Injury Market 2018 – IRN Legal Market Briefing

The UK Personal Injury Market Briefing 2018 is the fifth edition of an annual Legal Market Briefing from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK personal injury and clinical negligence markets.

The personal injury market is a large market, worth almost £4bn annually but  it is struggling to generate any real growth. The new legislation set for April 2020 (increasing small claim limit for PI claims, introducing a range of fixed costs tariffs, encouraging more litigants in person) will negatively impact on the revenues and margins of PI law firms and claims management companies (CMCs). Despite the above outlook,  IRN Research expects the PI market to grow modestly in value terms in 2018 and 2019 but it is likely to decline in 2020 as the new rules start to have an impact.  In the next year or so, it is likely that PI law firms and CMCs will embark on contingency plans and strategies ready for the 2020 reforms.

The briefing (59pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240.

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UK Wills, Trusts & Probate Market 2018 – IRN Legal Market Briefing

The UK Wills, Trusts & Probate Market Briefing is the fifth in a series of annual Legal Market Briefings from IRN Research and provides an overview of the UK wills, trusts and probate market. This report has been expanded since the last, including coverage of trusts and estate administration and more detailed market size information.

The wills, trusts and probate market was worth over £1.2 billion in 2017. It is highly fragmented and served by thousands of mainly small providers, often unregulated. An IRN Research consumer survey in October 2018 found that when getting professional legal help making a will, over 60% of consumers still use a solicitor/law firm, and when getting legal help arranging probate almost 8 out of 10 consumers use a solicitor or law firm. Most people only think about making a will as they get older so penetration of wills has remained around 40% of adults year-on-year. Even so, in IRN Research’s 2018 Survey of Practitioners in the sector, almost 7 out of 10 are expecting increased workload in the next 12 months.

The report (50pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240.

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UK Medico-Legal and Insurance Market 2019 – IRN Legal Market Report

The UK Medico-Legal and Insurance Services Market Trends Report 2019 is the third edition of an annual Legal Market Report from IRN Research. It provides an overview of the UK market for firms that provide medical expertise (ME) and rehabilitation and allied medical services (RAMS) to the legal and insurance sectors.

While the market has continued to grow in recent years, the rate of annual increase is slowing. Competition for market share is intensifying as is the competition for medical expertise and medical skills. In this environment, some of the smaller players have been forced out of the market, forced to merge or been taken over by larger rivals. At the same time, some of the established mid and low-end market players have sought to move up market into the higher margined catastrophic injury sector.

While IRN Research still expects that the mid and upper segments of the market will grow over the coming years, the prospects for the low-end of the market (i.e. soft tissue, whiplash type injuries from road traffic accidents) looks poor. New legislative changes from April 2020, are likely to make a severe dent on this sector of the market, which will call into question the long-term viability of RTA-focused operators and some of the smaller MedCo medical reporting organisations.

The report (87pp, PDF), is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £200. UK sterling price is plus VAT so total price is £240. 

 

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UK Personal Injury Consumer Research Report 2018

The Personal Injury Consumer Research Report 2018 is the first in a series of new reports from IRN Research (branded as Orchard Reports) on the legal services market and offering insights into consumer behaviour, perceptions, brand awareness, and opinions. This report is based on responses from 567 consumers involved in a personal injury or clinical negligence incident.

The latest consumer research findings from IRN Research show that a clear majority of claim pay-outs – 65% – are up to £5,000, and these would fall under the new small claims limit set to be introduced in 2020.  However, only 20% of survey respondents would be happy to take on a claim on their own through the small claims court.

The Personal Injury Consumer Research Report 2018, and the detailed dataset of all survey results with a demographic analysis is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £2,500 (plus VAT). Discounts for report purchase only, dataset only, or purchases of extracts.

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UK Wills, Trusts & Probate Market 2018 – Consumer Research Report

The latest consumer research findings from IRN Research show that only 37% of adults have made a will, and an estimated 2 million adults made a will in the last 12 months. The wills market is skewed towards older age groups with over six out of ten adults in the over 55s age group having made a will.

The Wills & Probate Consumer Research Report 2018 is the second in a series of new reports from IRN Research (branded as Orchard Reports) on the legal services market and offering insights into consumer behaviour, perceptions, brand awareness, and opinions. This report is based on responses from 1,034 consumers including 379 that have made a will, and 291 that have been involved in estate administration (probate).

The Wills & Probate Consumer Research Report 2018, and the detailed dataset of all survey results with a demographic analysis is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £2,500 (plus VAT).
Discounts for report purchase only, dataset only, or purchases of extracts.

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UK Legal Services Consumer Research Report 2019 – Consumer Research Report

The latest consumer research findings from IRN Research show that a majority of adults have used a law firm/solicitor in the last five years, but use of other legal services providers is also growing.

A clear majority find it difficult to differentiate one law firm from another but over three-quarters would be influenced in their choice of law firm by price information on a law firm website, i.e. when choosing between law firms they would choose the one giving clear price information on their site (New price transparency regulations have been introduced requiring law firms in some practice areas to publish prices but some law firms have yet to comply).

The UK Legal Services Consumer Research Report 2019 is the third in a series of new reports from IRN Research (branded as Orchard Reports) on the legal services market and offering insights into consumer behaviour, perceptions, brand awareness, and opinions. This report is based on responses from a national sample of 1,207 consumers.

The UK Legal Services Consumer Research Report 2019, and the detailed dataset of all survey results with a demographic analysis is available directly from IRN Research, priced at £2,500 (plus VAT). Discounts for report purchase only, dataset only, or purchases of extracts.

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UK Family Law Consumer Research Report 2019

The Family Law Consumer Research Report is the 2019 is a new report from IRN Research (branded as Orchard Reports) offering insights into consumer behaviour, perceptions, brand awareness, and opinions. This report is based on responses from 304 consumers that have been involved in a divorce or civil partnership dissolution in the last five years.

The  consumer research findings  show that almost a third of individuals involved in a divorce or civil partnership dissolution decided to deal with the proceedings themselves from start to finish. Another 10% started proceedings themselves but then used a solicitor or law firm to complete the process. The largest group still used a solicitor/law firm from start to finish.

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