Britain is becoming a nation of “law junkies”, with thousands heading to see lawyers each week, according to a survey.

Every year an estimated two million people seek legal advice, and an estimated 35 million people have sought legal advice at some point in their lives, in most cases to buy or sell a home.

The research shows that almost 60 per cent of people went to lawyers over moving house, 27 per cent over wills and 21 per cent over divorce in the course of their lives.

The findings suggest that as many as 4.6 million people have at some time in their life sought legal advice over an accident or injury, nearly four million over work disputes and 1.3 million over holiday and travel disasters. Another 93,000 went to lawyers to secure custody over pets.

The survey of more than 1,800 adults across Britain was commissioned by the website TakeLegalAdvice.com. It detects a shift towards less main-stream legal advice, with people increasingly willing to go to lawyers over a range of problems.

One in 500 visits to the hair salon leads to a legal dispute, and for every 1,000 diners at a restaurant there will be one legal battle on the menu. One in 20 has taken legal advice over rogue traders or shoddy builders, and one in 50 against a family member (beyond divorce).

In all, people are likely to spend at least £1,000 in their lifetime on lawyers, with charges ranging from £150 to many thousands of pounds.

But at the same time the proliferation of new laws makes it easier for people to fall foul of the law themselves: 82 per cent felt that the trend towards what they regard as the “nanny state” increases people’s risk of breaking the law, sometimes through ignorance.

While 68 per cent of those surveyed were aware that sexual humiliation at work could lead to the law courts, only half knew that a teacher could be prosecuted for slapping a child, and only one in four that he or she had a potential claim against a restaurant for spilling scalding coffee on them.

However, fear of legal costs remains a barrier to pursuing claims in court. Thirty-seven per cent had considered pursuing a case but had not gone through with it – a figure that rises to 42 per cent in London and the South East.

Overall cost is the biggest obstacle (cited by 55 per cent), followed by the cost of losing their case (45 per cent); 21 per cent were intimidated by the legal process, 19 per cent had little confidence in the legal system, and 18 per cent cited ignorance of it.

People also cited other factors such as fear of being labelled a gossip or trouble-maker, fear of the courtroom proceedings, lack of time and potential impact on health or disruption of home life.

Of those who did take a case all the way, 89 per cent did not regret it and 79 per cent achieved a favourable outcome. The research also identified a number of “super-litigators”: 140,000 individuals have pursued ten or more legal cases in their lifetime.

The survey also sought to investigate levels of lawlessness. It found that, in almost every case, men were more likely than women to break the law. Motoring offences were particularly likely to be committed by men; women were more likely to swap price tags.

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