Why do solicitors always seem so slow

I bought my first property in 1986, before the Internet and before computers did very much at all. Everything for the conveyancing was done on paper and by post.

It was much faster than these days...

Because they take on too much work. Drag things out to add on costs. Have finally come under the treat of being disbarred and or sued for mucking up so get searches done that are unnecessary and or over the top. It's not actually a solicitor but a para legal

Perm any of the above and oh, did I say drag things out and make unnecessary communications to increase costs...

To be competitive and make any money in that kind of legal work you need to have a massive case load and deal with high volumes. Massive case load and high volumes mean things just don’t get done as fast as they would if they just acted for you.

Solicitors are not necessarily slow. I know lots of them, they all.work in a high volume conveyancer and they have around 100 files or more. They are heavily targeted on getting files to certai. "Milestones" aka by x date you need A B C to be completed on the file. But because they have so many files each file may hit a milestone per week. Some conveyancers can only work your file 1x per week which allows for responses from the other parties....

Because if you were their only client, it would cost you eye watering amount. Besides, they have to wait on other agencies. Thinking of conveyancing specifically, searches can take several weeks to return from some councils. Enquiries depend on two solicitors communicating and, often, seller chasing someone else or arranging requested documentation. I currently have 9 enquiries pigged with a seller providing documentation for various installations, some of which happened as far back as 2002. Do you have any paperwork lying around from your plumber or the receipt for your boiler? Or building control report for patio doors installation from 15 years ago? Me neither.

Targets means they have to take on huge amounts of work. The incentive of bonuses as well if they make over their target every month means taking on more and more clients.

Also, greedy management have taken away support staff or don’t replace them, meaning that solicitors have to do everything, including all admin on top of eye watering targets. If you’re not meeting your target, you get interrogated and fear for your job.

I work in this area, as an assistant thankfully. My DH is a solicitor though, and has been known to work until 1am and all weekend to meet target.

A solicitor I was assisting (probate) used to shake with fear (literally) before every target review. They were so nasty to him.