Epoq launches telephone based legal platform to deliver mass market legal services

Coinciding with Lord Falconer's speech spearheading major change in the way legal services are set to be purchased

Epoq, the award winning legal solutions company, today launches a telephone based legal platform. This allows complex legal services to be made available to consumers over the telephone. The first two services being launched are sophisticated Wills with Inheritance Tax planning, aimed at the many millions of people whose properties are now over the Inheritance Tax threshold and a comprehensive Identity Theft Recovery service, to meet the growing demand for this fast rising crime.

Epoq's telephone based legal services are being launched to the customers of a range of financial institutions and intermediaries.

Grahame Cohen, Joint CEO, Epoq Group said: "Our telephone legal platform complements Epoq's existing Internet based legal solutions, ensuring the consumer has easy access to professional legal services. We now offer a complete industrial strength process from which we can deliver virtually any legal service en-mass by telephone or via the web, to consistently high standards, yet at fixed lower prices."

The Government is spearheading the most significant changes in the way in which legal services are set to be bought and sold. In his speech on Monday 21st March 2005, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor gave the go-ahead to an even more significant overhaul of the legal marketplace than originally envisaged by Sir David Clementi, when he announced plans to give consumers greater choice, innovation and competition.

In excerpts from his speech, Lord Falconer said: "Consumers have told us what they don't want.
 

• They don't want to be let down.
• They don't want delays.
• They don't want quotes for work which turn out to be only a fraction of the final cost.
• They don't want to receive letters which they don't understand.

…They want our legal services to continue to flourish, with competition and innovation encouraged, so that they receive the best possible product.

…We believe that new ways of working and new capital could encourage innovations in delivery - innovations of benefit to consumers.

…Increased liberalisation, supported by stringent regulation, will provide the opportunity for people to get the whole range of services they want, in the form they want and at the time that they want ...This may be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

This £10 billion legal services market, once the preserve of law firms, is now also set to be distributed through banking, insurance and retail outlets. The process has already started with Epoq having signed up a number of major financial institutions to provide its legal solutions, including MORE TH>N (Royal & SunAlliance) and Capita Insurance Services, with more to follow this year.

Perhaps the least known fact about this marketplace is that, under current UK regulations, non-lawyers can already deliver many legal services.

Commenting on Epoq's new system, Richard Cohen, Solicitor and Joint CEO, Epoq Group said: "Epoq was made famous in 1999 with the introduction of our online Desktop Lawyer legal service which included the ability to arrange a Divorce over the Internet. Our new systems integrate with our Web based solutions but add the important dimension of service through the telephone, a media that everyone is used to and finds highly convenient.

"This is a significant operational innovation and means we can deliver even more personalised services to even larger audiences."

Prices for Epoq's telephone legal services compare favourably against Solicitors. For example, the Wills range in retail price including VAT, from £99 for a straightforward Will, to £299 for an Inheritance Tax Planning Will with a Discretionary Trust. Solicitors and Wills writers can charge up to twice as much, yet with Epoq the customer receives consistent quality standards and accessibility unavailable through traditional means.

Epoq's telephone delivered legal solutions use Rapidocs® to create the intelligent legal documents. Rapidocs (also developed by Epoq) allows highly sophisticated and tailored legal documents to be created for the customer by trained call centre operatives, following an advanced question and answer script. Once complete, the document is then presented by the system to the legal team, comprising of over 60 qualified legal professionals, who approve the document and provide any further assistance. From there the document is routed to Epoq's printing bureau, where it is printed, bound and despatched to the customer.

Other telephone based legal services are also available, including Identity Theft Recovery, a Credit Rating Improvement Service and Powers of Attorney, with further services launching later in 2005.