Conveyancing fees stifle home ownership - lawyer

It notes conveyance is the only service that still has a recommended fee structure set by law societies. Stanger spoke out after a recent meeting between the Competition Commission and the Law Society of SA where unresolved issues about the rules of the attorneys' profession and competition concerns were addressed. The commission and the legal body had agreed that while the society might set minimum tariffs, they could not be enforced. The commission had found that rules that prevented practitioners from offering discounts below the set fees amounted to price-fixing. Stanger said yesterday it was in the interest of large law firms to protect the regulated fees set by the law societies. He added the line between pure marketing and touting was so thin that many lawyers did not want to be seen to be crossing it. The report notes Krish Govender, co-chairperson of the Law Society of SA, said the Legal Practice Bill went a long way towards eliminating rules that might impinge on competition principles. 'A common statute would regulate all lawyers under one common set of rules and thereby create uniformity.' Full Business Day report