SOLICITORS have warned that abolishing scale fees for conveyancing work would not necessarily lead to lower charges and might mean more abuses.
Simon Ip Sik-on, a practising solicitor who represents the legal profession in the Legislative Council, said: 'To abolish scale fees in the name of free competition is an over-simplified approach.' He said the primary advantage of scale fees, which bound solicitors to charge fees according to the value of a property, was that it provided for certainty. Consumers knew how much they were expected to pay regardless of the complexity of a transaction.
If the public felt the current scale of fees was too high, then there might be a case for a review by the Costs Committee, which was chaired by a High Court judge and whose members were not dominated by solicitors, he said.
But abolishing scale fees could lead to more abuses by unscrupulous solicitors, who might entice clients by quoting a low fee and subsequently raise it by claiming the work involved was more complex than expected.
There was also the danger that competition would force solicitors to lower their charges and then try to maintain their profit margins by cutting corners affecting the quality of their work.
Ip said a small minority of solicitors were already known to leave all the difficult work to be done by solicitors representing the other side. Abolishing scale fees would put more pressure on honest solicitors. At present, it is an open secret that some solicitors have under-the-table agreements to give rebates to real estate agents who refer conveyancing work to them.