Mr. Patrick Dorgan:

The Law Society as a body has no involvement in setting or maintaining fees and this is well known. From my personal experience I can confirm the competition for conveyancing work is intense.

There is a high level of consumer awareness about the elasticity of solicitors' fees. I assure the committee that the first question that any practising solicitor is asked when a house is being bought is not whether he or she is any good at the job, knows what he or she is doing, has many satisfied clients, has insurance or is bonded, but how much the service will cost. The society cannot claim it will reduce solicitors' fees, as that would be disingenuous. However, my next point may answer the second part of the question. It follows as night the day that, if the process is made simpler, easier, quicker and less risky, this will flow to the bottom line from the consumer's point of view.