Finding Legal Help When Things Go Wrong
Hopefully you'll have seen the dozens of articles on our site telling you to be wary of the Legal Assistance addons many insurers stick on your policy as already having opted into rather than asking you if you want to opt in like the pretty much do for everything else such as breakdown cover or a courtesy car. It may sound like a good idea at the time when you see costs of a couple dozen pounds in order to secure the services of a solicitor if you need one. Considering solicitors cost hundreds of pounds per hour this sounds like a great deal. However remember that insurers are already making much of a loss on car insurance policies and are not really going to give away more stuff if they can help it. For most car insurance related matters, solicitors work for free. In other words, all that no win no fee and 100% compensation stuff you see on the adverts. In other words, you're paying the insurer for a service that is free and the majority of people don't bother to use their insurance appointed solicitor when something goes wrong anyway because it feels like a conflict of interests:
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Law (aka All Law Ltd) Solicitors in Preston: It's user-side offerings far exceed anything it's counterparts currently show. For a start, most of them look the same with the same sales language, promises, and sometimes even the same images of people smiling and shaking hands. This way you can see the specialist areas o...
WYM Legal Ltd Conveyancing Solicitors in Watford: We've been in the legal industry for over 20 years now, but haven't had much dealings with the CLC so can't comment further.
So what things can be useful? First it should be noted that not all firms stating they deal with Property matters are actual firms of solicitor...
Woodstock Legal Services Ltd - Solicitors Law Practice in Poole: It's not as if any firm is going to claim the opposite - i.e. Our poll a few years back resulted in only 8% of you saying you even read them. We highly recommend checking any firm you're considering against their information. Make sure to actually read the comments though...
Wolf Law Solicitors Ltd in Wirral: Sometimes just because an official-looking email came through saying to quickly change the bank details the deposit goes into. We've seen many firms with negative reviews from buyers telling them to 'hurry up' their selling client.
class="infoquote "Get in touch today...
Wilford Smith Solicitors in Sheffield (Meadowhall) & Rotherham - WS Strategic Ltd: First, a quote from their website:
class="infoquote "We are more than just a law firm. compared to testimonials provided by the company themselves.
On that topic we should cover some notes about navigation. Todays article focuses on Wilford Smith solicitors. 'W...
Wildcat Law Ltd Solicitors in London & Southampton: The official website we link to above is www.wildcatlaw.co.uk which is https secure for submitted your details in the contact form, but www.wildcatlaw.com does not redirect you there.
class="infoquote "Unlike most law firms in England and Wales we offer both Solici...
WH Law Ltd - Immigration Solicitors in Woking:
class="infoquote "Unfortunately immigrating to the UK is not simple. It may be a phrase we dislike resorting to, but it fits. There are firms out there that say 'we specialise in xyz' and list a massive number of areas of law. That's good. We've long praised this or...
Waterstone Partnership Solicitors Ltd in Bradford: Because they also provide the qualification dates and areas of law focused on by each solicitor.
But even if the firm you're checking on does have a website, we still recommend https: solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk organisation people 606048 waterstone-partnership-sol...
Walker Foster Ltd Solicitors in Skipton, Barnoldswick, Silsden, Settle, Ilkley, Northallerton & Harrogate: a long-established and respected general practice law firm founded in 1919, with offices in Skipton, Barnoldswick, Silsden, Settle, Ilkley, Northallerton and Harrogate."< div>
at the top of their main page. That's probably more to do with how clever marketing has beco...
UVS Law Immigration & Visa Solicitor in Burton-on-Trent & London:
This includes Business Immigration such as Sponsorship Licences and Skilled Workers, Personal Immigration such as Partner Routes (e.g. UK Immigration Law is governed by the Immigration Act 1971, which has undergone several amendments over the years such as Chagos Islan...
TWB Probate Solicitors Ltd - Estate Planning, Wills & Probate in London: For example, in some cases you may be better off with an accountant or a barrister rather than a solicitor.
class="infoquote "TWB Probate Solicitors. This mean you can also use the Law Society site to verify any claims a firm or professional makes about their experie...
The Law Partnership Ltd - Solicitors in Coventry: Something you just don't see elsewhere.
That's alot more impressive than you might think. We don't usually tell people what to do in our articles, but it's safe to say you can ignore such founding dates when deciding which legal services firm to use. The comments for...
Thomas and Thomas Solicitors Ltd in Maesteg, Bridgend & Port Talbot: If you've already visited a dozen law firm websites today looking for one that peak's your interest, you'll have been bombarded with words such as 'friendly', 'expert', and 'modern'. The .com and other variants such as www.thomasandthomas.co.uk also do not bring the correc...
The Legal Practice Ltd - Solicitors in Rickmansworth & Wembley Park, Greater London: There is also a huge amount of people that leave negative reviews about the other side's solicitor during a house transaction which seems incredibly unfair because they've usually obtained their negative opinion from their own solicitor blaming every issue on the other side....
Stephanie Heijdra - The Lady Barrister & Clerksroom Chambers in London: We also hope it clarifies why Stephanie Heijdra was one of such legal professionals we decided to add to our own network.. As she works on her own her website is therefore much more focused in providing information about her.
This is even more difficult for people...
Thaxted Legal Ltd Immigration Solicitors in Chislehurst, London: A quick note on navigation though as the firm's official website is www.thaxtedlegal.com which we've linked to above but none of the variants such as www.thaxtedlegal.co.uk, www.thaxted.co.uk or the .com redirect you there. It's not as if any firm will say they are NOT exper...
Summerfield Browne Solicitors in London, Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Market Harborough & Leicester: The firm states offices in London, Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Market Harborough, and Leicester.
The public reviews themselves are sometimes not very helpful either.
If you check the information https: solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk organisation people 546848...
Stowe Family Law - Divorce Solicitors in Harrogate, York, Beverley & Other Locations: Some people believe they will be 'lost in the pack' at a large firm, whilst others think the weight of a large firm behind them will increase their changes of a successful outcome. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your view, some review boards https: www.google.co...
Sternberg Reed LLP Solicitors with Offices in Romford, Barking & Grays: Sternberg Reed displays practice staff with experience spanning the past six decades such as Elizabeth Bendall who qualified in 1976, Julian Beard (1989), Kevin Bristow (1996), Judith Gould (2007), Francesca Clay (2014), right up to Danielle Apenteng who joined the professio...
Solidaire Solicitors - Solidaire Law Ltd in Milton Keynes: It's not always easy with Google. But you've probably seen most law firms claiming to offer 'bespoke' services and promise a 'positive outcome'. Above are some snippets from those. Make sure any firm you are thinking of using has https: www.sra.org.uk " an SRA number< a> ...
Smith and Graham Solicitors in Hartlepool, Peterlee and Middlesbrough: Sadly establishment dates are one of those marketing things companies with less-than-good-intentions misuse all the time.
Smith and Graham have 'Team' pages with profiles of their staff including experience and areas of practice which is great and something we always ...
Rose Fendlen Law - Solicitors in Wigan (Formerly LRose Law): Sadly Google was showing adverts at the top for some of our searches so watch out for that. This is important because there are many websites on the internet designed to look like a law firm, but are actually a marketing firm or data gathering service. So what are the thir...
PCS Legal Ltd Conveyancing Solicitors in Basildon, Ongar, Wickford, London, Rayleigh &Harlow:
class="infoquote "Our property lawyers have extensive legal experience in all fields of property law and are suitably qualified to deal with all your needs."< div>
To check on the legal qualifications of a firm and whether there is an actual solicitor working t...
Oakwood Solicitors Ltd & Oakwood Property Solicitors in Leeds: that they are out of date, inexperienced, and inefficient) those descriptions are universal so also do not help you distinguish one firm from another. The firm's name is actually quite unique so various searches such as "oakwood law" brought up the same firm. Especially th...
Nicholson Jones Sutton Solicitors in Macclesfield: So really we don't think 'established' or 'founding' dates are helpful in any way. People make mistakes and can simply be idiots.
'Experience' length of times can also be worded very differently on sites and we think Nicholson Jones Sutton Solicitors have done themselv...
SG Murphy & Co Ltd - Solicitors in Newtownabbey, Belfast:
So how do you tell them apart? Sadly, since the giant push for marketing jargon to make things sound great no matter what, it can be difficult. When was the last time you saw a firm admit to being 'rude', 'outdated', or 'lacking experience'?
We've often praise...
MJV & Co Solicitors Ltd - Law Firm in Thornton-Cleveleys, Blackpool: The branding is mostly 'MJV Solicitors' but the official site is www.mjvlaw.co.uk not www.mjvsolicitors.co.uk (which currently has no site on it). While seeing such a description is not rare amongst many types of business, it's something we've stopped seeing so much amongst ...
McCarthy + Co LLP Solicitors in Dublin, Cork & Clonakilty:
class="infoquote "Our conveyancing department combines legal excellence and amazing customer service to help ensure that your property sale or purchase is completely hassle-free."< div>
For some reason (which we don't fully understand) for over a decade now peo...
Mark Croft Driving Offence Solicitor in Derby:
Another is the more useless of claims (in our opinion) such as 'established in 1881'. So just be careful anyway when visiting sites and always be aware of what site you're on, it's padlock status, and who's emailing you.. There is not going to be some 200+ year old ...
Mackenzie Jones Solicitors in St Asaph, Menai Bridge & Chester: However with this firm handling conveyancing matters you need to be extra careful. But also maybe some they don't, yet should. Put that all together though, and it backs up the firm's claim on their website:
class="infoquote "with the vast majority of our work being g...
Lyons Solicitors - Law Firm in Kingswood, Westbury-on-Trym & Chew Magna (Bristol): On the other hand, a law firm with one solicitor trying to deal with 20 different case types would clearly not count as a specialist. But if a law firm states they have '20 years of combined experience' or '20 years of experience within the firm' - that means they've added u...
LS Legal Solicitors Ltd: So what are the independent forums saying?
class="infoquote "highly professional and super helpful"
"professional and approachable, explaining anything I wasn’t sure about"
"extremely efficient with clear and concise communication"
"very knowledgeable, expe...
QualitySolicitors Large & Gibson - Law Firm in Southsea, Portsmouth: We are dedicated to providing the highest quality legal advice and expertise for our clients, but in a way that's far friendlier, more accessible and clear-talking than you might expect from a law firm."< div>
That's the brief explanation on each firm's pages. Most of...
Kee Solicitors Ltd in Glasgow & Aberdeen: But the claims are not unique. The firm has its own https: www.keesolicitors.co.uk our-people" staff profile page< a> listing some information and background about each solicitor. It could mean as little as a 5 minute chat with a trainee solicitor or just a call centre op...
JPS Walker Solicitors Ltd in Manchester: As a (ridiculously basic) example - it would obviously be better to use an expert lawyer who takes 25% of a hard won £5000 compensation win, than to use a less expert lawyer who takes 0% of a £2000 settlement. That means each will only be covered very briefly, bu...
Horsley Law Solicitors in Stafford aka Horsley Holdings Ltd: They also state (at the time of writing):
class="infoquote "99% trials won. Pay special attention if the firm you're looking into handles property matters because they are often targeting by fraudsters and https: www.ncsc.gov.uk collection phishing-scams" phishing ...
Hill House Chambers - Barristers Based in London: they are qualified to ... So instantly this reduced the amount of time and cost for huge numbers of clients to have their case dealt with. The Law Society of England & Wales provides this information on all solicitors which is great. Why it took so long to make this availa...
Heritage Park Family Law Ltd - Barrister Chambers in Ampthill, Bedford: Since the explosion of the internet, we are now a good few decades away from people being forced to use the law firm on their local high street. It's odd to imagine opening hours being a selling point, but when it comes to the worry of a court case - access to your legal tea...
HCR Legal LLP Solicitors Law Firm incl Medical Accident Group in Worcester, Birmingham & Hereford: For example, while www.hcrlaw.co.uk redirects you to the main site, other variants such as www.hcrlegal.com are not currently owned by the firm.
class="infoquote "We work as part of our parent law firm, Harrison Clark Rickerbys, whose roots stretch back to 1796."< div...
Harrison's Solicitors - Conveyancing in Reading, Caversham & Woodley:
This way you can check whether the firm does have genuine 'qualified' staff.
class="infoquote "The transaction will be handled by our qualified conveyancing solicitors from beginning to end."< div>
This is also a statement nearly every firm will make but...
Guardian Law Ltd - Employment & HR Lawyers in Nottingham: Please also note that the firm's original HR site at www.yourhrlawyer.co.uk has now moved to www.guardian.online as a separate resources.
To get the correct reviews to come up we needed to enter the full 'guardian law nottingham' but that is the case for many companies...
Goldsmith Bowers Debt Recovery & Litigation Solicitors in Bradford: We've seen variants such as 'goldsmith and bowers' showing up in searches due to the number of law firms that use that separator for partner names in the firm. If you check out https: solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk office 475767 goldsmith-bowers-ltd" the page for any firm< ...
Girlings Solicitors LLP & Girlings Personal Injury Claims Ltd in Sandwich, Ashford & Canterbury: The second guarantees you won't have to pay anything if your case wins. Big thumbs up. If a law firm handles only one case type such as Motoring Offences, they are clearly specialists . However, we do not recommend picking a firm based on whether they guarantee you 100% com...
Frei Solicitors Ltd - Luxury Asset Law Firm in London:
class="infoquote "We work with law firms in other jurisdictions, where we have close links and strong personal relationships, in order to achieve our clients’ objectives."< div>
However this means the regular tips and rules which we advise people such as htt...
Foster & Coleman Ltd Solicitors in Bromley, Greater London: There were some comments available when we looked:
class="infoquote "they have made me and my family very happy"
"Outstanding service"
"comitment to their clients requirements"< div>
But note that when you search for a firm you need to make sure the name i...
Eve Lake Conveyancing & Legal Services in Hope Valley: We've been writing in the legal industry for over twenty years and conveyancing firms with star ratings in the 4s is actually rather unusual. However, if you already know there might be legal issues surrounding your sale such as a boundary dispute or if the sellers are getti...
Amy King Legal - Personal Injury & Litigation Solicitor in Gillingham, Kent: But definitely, make sure the person you're hiring seems interested in you, has at least some experience, and targets the areas of law your case falls under. "< div> < br>
The main thing is to feel confident in the professional you are talking to, no matter what indust...
EMD Law LLP Solicitors in Staplehurst & St Leonards-on-Sea: They do claim a long history with 'established in 1918' on the About Us page. The site is https secure for submitting your personal details via the contact form. (Lots of people smiling, looking at paperwork, and the obligatory handshake snapshot.)
class="infoquot...
EDC Lord & Co Solicitors in Southall: Also you cannot use an ampersand in web addresses so www.edclord&co.co.uk is not possible.
class="infoquote "We thrive on repeat business as well as recommendations from existing and potential future clients. 'edc lord and co solicitors southall'. Each section include...
Eatons Solicitors in Bradford, Bingley, Yeadon & Leeds West Yorkshire: They also seem to have bought other variants such as www.eatonssolicitors.co.uk which is actually much more helpful and security conscious than you might think.
Over the past decade there has been a massive upsurge of people https: www.telegraph.co.uk money katie-...
Drummond Miller LLP Solicitors in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bathgate, Musselburgh, Dalkeith & East Kilbride: It's very common for solicitors to use their names with an 'and' in between, but not in this case.
A quick but important note on navigation though.
Many of our articles try to introduce you to some of these new firms and point out ways in which you can resea...
Dispute Resolver Consultancy - Mediation & Alternative Dispute Resolution ADR in London: The official website is www.dispute-resolver.com while the non-hyphenated www.disputeresolver.com is not currently in use. ADR describes different ways you can solve a problem without having to go to court ...
Normally at this point in a review article we would point o...
Defank Solicitors in London: Any big changes, you need to ring your actual solicitor to check.. The easiest way to spot the difference is by searching the bottom of the firm's website. It is really important to note exactly where you should be going and the official details of the firm you choose beca...
CWJ Solicitors & Notaries - Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd in Orpington, Kent: With so much sales language to wade through, what should you be looking for?
class="infoquote "CWJ is a leading regional firm of Solicitors in Kent serving private individuals, businesses and organisations."< div>
Clarkson Wright & Jakes is a firm that has gro...
Scotland Injury Solicitors from Baker Hardman Ltd in Glasgow: Over the past few decades the number of law firms merging, changing branding, or increasing the number of brands they work under has grown considerably. To be sure you are on the website of an actual solicitor you can look the firm up on the SRA website and it will tell you ...
Cullimore Dutton Solicitors Ltd - Conveyancing & Legal Services in Chester: They've also ensured www.cullimoredutton.com redirects to the main site www.cullimoredutton.co.uk which is great as many firms don't bother. The first is simple and should mean there is someone on staff with 40 years of experience working in this area of law. The site is a...
Calio Claims Ltd - Personal Injury in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth & Dundee: As the rules and regulations and guidelines flew around constantly changing - plus with government, law courts, and regulatory bodies constantly disagreeing with each other - it became easier for law firms to have a separate marketing brand.
class="infoquote "With on...
Buchanan & Co Ltd Solicitors in Staveley, Chesterfield, Kiveton Park & Sheffield: (Quite often not even from their own clients but from impatient buyers sellers on the opposite side!)
class="infoquote "People often feel that Conveyancers get paid for doing very little.
Either way though, always make sure to read actual comments rather than re...
Brown & Co Solicitors in Greenwich, London: You'll get a lot of opinions on social boards or 'help' articles about the pros cons of using a large law firm, a small local firm, a specialist, a general practice firm, etc.
Does this translate into happy clients? For this we always turn to the public boards like h...
Brodies LLP Solicitors in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh & Inverness Scotland: There is usually no background check or even effort to check they are a real law firm. Some firms must have had problems or fall short of their promises. But there are other points about navigation we should cover as well.
class="infoquote "We immerse ourselves in our...
Bridge McFarland LLP - Solicitors in Grimsby, Hull, Lincoln, Louth, and Market Rasen: If you look up https: solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk organisation people 621785 bridge-mcfarland-llp" the staff page< a> for this firm you'll see a range of qualification dates spanning the last four decades including Sarah Keeper who qualified in 1988, Emma Downing in 1997...
Brian Barr Solicitors Ltd Chronic Pain & Fibromyalgia Compensation in Manchester: Experience is also a massive part of a successful and swift outcome to your case. 'brian barr solicitors manchester'. One of the problems when trying to find a law firm to help with a case is the similarities between each firm's website. There are plenty which simply string ...
Bell Lax Ltd - Solicitors in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham: For all we know the poor rating is for something ridiculous or not even for the correct firm. The public review system has many flaws, but it's still worth checking out. The problem though, is that not all firms are talking about the same thing. Then the third is simply the...
Backhouse Solicitors in Chelmsford, Essex:
A quick note on navigation though. You can get a 1-year newbie solicitor from a 200-year-old firm and a 40 year veteran lawyer from a 1-year-old law practice brand.
That certainly seemed to be true in the early days, but sadly Google's unchallenged buyout of th...
ACSL Solicitors Ltd in Liverpool: If you've just finished flicking through a dozen of them before arriving here you'll no doubt have already worked out they all seem to say very similar things. Absolutely, a firm that indicates potential pricing on their site is showing< u> a level of transparency rather th...
A City Law Firm Ltd in London: This is something to watch out for though.
At this point we should also mention the firm's branding and navigation. Sometimes even for big brands we've had to type in the location of the head office to get the correct reviews to show up.
The Legal 500 is one na...
Two Harcourt Buildings Chambers - 2HB Barristers in London: A chambers is more like an introduction umbrella between clients and possible representation. If you check out pages on some barristers at Two Harcourt Buildings such as https: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk barristers-register 4BBE91514B136EDB21768133AD6D31CD.html" Paul Ca...
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