Trust Me I'm A Lawyer

How has 2022 affected the UK public’s perception of lawyers?

This year’s Veracity Index by IPSOS is now out.

Every year, the Veracity Index by Ipsos releases data measuring the level of the UK public’s trust in various professions.

This is what it says.

Some professions fare better than others. The biggest drop is politicians, who this year have fallen to 2009 levels during the 2009 expenses scandal. Riding high this year are nurses in top position followed by engineers, doctors and scientists.

Obviously, being a legal recruitment firm, we’re interested in how lawyers fare in this 2022 index.

In 2021, 59% of those surveyed by Ipsos said they trusted lawyers. This year, that has dipped to 57%.

That means the surveyed UK public put trust in lawyers below taxi drivers, restaurant staff, museum curators, the police and television newsreaders.

Interestingly, judges sit high on 80% despite salaried judges being former lawyers in most cases. But that too is a dip from 82% last year.

Trust and perception matter, because we need the public to have faith in our judicial system. Also, it’s hard to know what causes these dips. Is it big court cases grabbing headlines? Negative experiences with law firms or solicitors? Being a lawyer means many different things and there’s a big difference between perception of the role versus reality.