Finding the Right Help in the UK

It's a daunting task often to have to approach anyone about personal matters such as many legal issues tend to be about. So trying to gauge the best firms using the usual tactics such as word of mouth or online reviews is even more of a challenge. To help better understand how to research UK law firms and the information/reviews available to people on the web we've created a range of editorial articles related to many firms. Large or small, specialist or general:

Law Solicitors: So it might be an idea to bookmark the site if you plan on coming back. So you need to pay attention to the websites you are on and the emails you receive. The worst currently target property matters due to the large sums involved. Their site is HTTPS secure though so you ...


Eve Lake Conveyancing: Sadly that difference is often not explained well by either. Be alert throughout your transaction. This is hugely important to note because for property matters you absolutely need to make sure you are on the correct site and only discussing the sale with your firm. ...


Amy King Solicitor: But how can a member of the public tell an experienced solicitor from a non-experience one? If a solicitor is registered with The Law Society of England & Wales you are able to look up alternate trading names, contact details, areas of law covered, and languages spoke...


Heritage Park Family Law: Some firms say 'established in 1881' but that doesn't mean a 150-year-old solicitor is sat behind a desk somewhere. Many amazing firms with a long histories have only a handful or even zero reviews. When it comes to online reviews though there are two things you need to reme...


McCarthy and Co Solicitors: In the end, all it showed us was the address and phone number for McCarthy & Co. We had an issue trying to get reviews to come up on Google's site. class="infoquote "An Award Winning Team of Solicitors With A Personal Touch"< div> So what can you do to discern...

Oakwood Property Solicitors: So what can you do? class="infoquote "As a multi service law firm based in Leeds, we offer clear, practical support and guidance for all of the legal issues affecting individuals and businesses"< div> That's a snippet from the site of the firm Oakwood Solicito...


A.C.S.L. Solicitors: So if anyone knows about law firm's websites, we're surely in that list . So how can you tell the actual experience levels within a firm if founding dates are meaningless? That's actually quite easy if you live in England and Wales. You can easily end up with a 1-yea...


Sternberg Reed Solicitors: They offer a considerable amount of useful information to users. We've seen so many news headlines popping up about people https: www.bankofscotland.co.uk securityandprivacy protecting-yourself-from-fraud keep-your-home-safe-mortgage-deposit-scams.html" handing ten...


Eatons Solicitors Ltd: We don't think the age of the brand should sway you. We've been working with law firms for over 20 years and rarely have we seen such a collection of experience within one firm. But most importantly they also list the areas of expertise and qualification date of every soli...


WYM Legal Solicitors: Either the length of time taken, delays that no-one will take the blame for, extra reports being ordered, and more. The official site we link to above is www.wymlegal.com and www.wymlegal.co.uk does not currently redirect there. by setting entry standards and regulating prov...


Thomas & Thomas Solicitors: Most preferred the public boards such as Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, etc. Be aware that Google has changed how it displays reviews and nowadays you sometimes have to enter the location to see any reviews at all. Certainly those are dates for which the firm can reaso...


Wolf Law Ltd: We don't recommend using this as a deciding factor on its own though. All personal injury firms should not charge you a penny up front or if your case loses. Sometimes just because an official-looking email came through saying to quickly change the bank details the de...


SG Murphy & Co Ltd: These are just little things but you need to keep vigilant - especially with property matters. A quick note on navigation. There is also a case studies section detailing example cases for each case type along with the problems faced and timescales involved. Othe...

Walker Foster Ltd: Walker Foster has a staff page on their website where you can read about each individual staff member but they also provide direct contact details for each. The .com version is https-secure though for submitting your personal details on their contact form. The Law Society ...


Harrisons Thames Valley Solicitors LLP: Their areas of law also show they specialise in Property matters. That's a solid foundation. This way you can check whether the firm does have genuine 'qualified' staff. Never discuss payments via email. class="infoquote "And if the house sale falls through?...


Girlings Personal Injury Claims Ltd: Some firms have testimonials on their websites but we tend not to cover them as according to our poll a few years back - only 8% of you trust company provided testimonials. Some examples: Girlings' Jeremy Burke qualified in 1988, Kathryn Kennell in 1996, Michelle Meakin in 2...


UVS Law Ltd: For a barrister this can be a bit more difficult as the Bar Standards Council don't have the best user-side information setup. So how do you find the best immigration service for your particular needs? class="infoquote "We are committed to providing exceptional lega...


Kee Solicitors Family Law: class="infoquote "Kee Solicitors from the outset was set up to be a modern, transparent and approachable law firm."< div> These days there are specialist firms for practically every case type. Not least with the external social impact of the changing world on th...


Waterstone PS: Because they also provide the qualification dates and areas of law focused on by each solicitor. Very often you can find more useful information from The Law Society of England & Wales than on some solicitor's own sites. That means you can get a good idea of the expertise a...


Mark Croft Motor Offence: This statement is clear as it means Mark Croft himself has 28 years of experience . If you look up the Law Society of England & Wales you can check the alternate trading names, contact details, other offices, languages spoken and most importantly the qualification dates of ...


EMD Law Solicitors: Please note that even if you see a firm touting an ancient date such as 'established in 1881', that has absolutely no bearing on how good the office is today. only 8% of you apparently trust company provided comments. But all these changes and niche specialisations fir...


Lyons Law: We help and advise clients throughout Bristol, North and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire."< div> All this wording aside, though, we want to tell you about a great resource that can really help you distinguish one firm from another. But first you need to...


Brian Barr Ltd: The majority of English and Welsh firms are listed on the site so it's a simple and quick way to check if the firm and it's solicitors are actually likely to be experienced and specialising rather than simply saying so on their website. class="infoquote "Funding your ...


Frei Solicitors Ltd: For any given area we might displays results for a general high street solicitor next to a direct access barrister or a specialist non-solicitor solution. The amount of legal work required to buy, sell and just own a house is huge. So a lack of reviews is not a negative sign...


Drummond and Miller Solicitors: Solicitors could work from home, create their own startup firm, and build connections to grow their business without the need to spend a decade under someone else's brand first. That was until the internet came along. class="infoquote "whilst your day to day dealings ...


Calio Claims by Lindsays: class="infoquote "Calio Claims has helped thousands of people recover physically and financially following an accident."< div> The idea of law firms using separate branding for personal injury matters arose as a matter of necessity a few decades ago in the big ...


EDC Lord Solicitors: Therefore, it is extremely important to us that we provide an excellent service."< div> One of the standout features of the EDC Lord website is the detailed information provided on each of the firm's practice areas. Far too many people https: www.theguardian.com mone...


Nicholson Jones Sutton Solicitors Ltd: Our poll a few years back was very clear about that . But when it comes to law firms at least, you should never rely on those star ratings. We've seen law firms given 5 stars for their amazing new menu, and one criminal lawyer specialist had a 1 star review for refus...


Cullimore Dutton Solicitors Ltd: The majority are positive which is actually surprising for a Conveyancing firm. 8 staff with 5 years' experience = 40 years. The firm's branding is Cullimore Dutton (not Cullimore and Dutton) which are two unique names so nearly all misspellings we tried brought up the sam...


The Law Partnership Ltd: While that may have meant something several decades ago, it is no longer any measure of a company's promise. The Law Society have a data-packed user-side offering where you can search information on any registered firm. Always read the comments. That's alot more imp...


Wilford Smith: This one from the Wilford Smith site is very clear , indicating that they have been serving clients for over 40 years. Keep aware of which site you are on and never discuss payment details via email.. A firm covering personal and business matters with local offices in Sheff...


Foster & Coleman Solicitors: People have no problem jumping online to type their thoughts about a local pizza place or lamp store - they are less likely to rush to tell everyone how their bankruptcy, messy divorce, or criminal law case is going. This can be difficult when looking up comments about law...


Wildcat Law Solicitors: The combination of the two avenues gives a much wider scope to potentially help clients faster and at a lower cost. For example thousands of people have handed their entire house deposit when buying a house straight into a fraudster's bank account. class="infoquote "...


LS Legal Solicitors: 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...


A City Law Firm: However for business to business service providers such as A City Law Firm such testimonials pages are usually a little different. They will all still be the positive comments, but https: acitylawfirm.com testimonials " they will also display< a> the name of an act...


Buchanan & Co Solicitors Ltd: This snippet above from the website of Buchanan & Co Solicitors is one such statement - i.e. Be careful though as some firms use sneaky marketing jargon to make you think they have far more experience than they do. Sometimes for something as simple as an official-looking ema...


Goldsmith Bowers Solicitors Ltd: Firms will sometimes have testimonial pages and here are a few snippets from the spots on the Goldsmith Bowers' site: class="infoquote "dealt with the matter to conclusion, collected the full debt & avoided the need for legal action" "we were kept in the loop,...


Guardian Law Ltd: We have consistently warned people about the public review boards when researching a company you're thinking of using. Almost obsessed. They were all very positive , but lacking enough comments content to provide a good overview of the firm. Plus this would also indicate t...


Backhouse Solicitors Ltd: The founding date of a firm is utterly meaningless and usually tenous. We would have thought by now that all law firms would offer free consulations but it's still something many resist. But it does highlight some issues when searching for a legal practice to help you....


WH Law Ltd: The firm's official website is www.whsolicitors.co.uk but www.whsolicitors.com is for a completely different firm. class="infoquote "WH Solicitors is a specialist immigration solicitors firm based in Woking, Surrey. There are firms out there that say 'we specialise i...


2 Harcourt Chambers: No firm is going to claim it is archaic, inefficient, and unfriendly. 2HB clearly has made no such misleading attempt with that almost slap-in-the-face attention grabbing statement. If you've already been through a dozen other law firm's sites before reaching this article ...


MJV Law Solicitors: The question of course is whether this can result in a firm being better when it comes to handling clients and cases or if it has no effect at all. If that's 2x solicitors with 25 years' experience = still pretty good and making sense. It wasn't until we researched...


Bridge McFarland Solicitors: Any claims they make on their site about experience are certainly validated. 8 staff x 5 years experience = 40). The first means the firm or the solicitor within the firm has been going for at least 40 years. If you've already been through a dozen law firm websites today loo...


Woodstock Legal Services Ltd: Clearly we ended up with a positive impression of their law practice otherwise we would not have added them to our network. You'll see Peter Fowler qualified in 1974, Roger Clayson in 1981, Nichola Turpin in 2009, Carly Jermyn in 2010, right up to Rebecca Newton in 2017. ...


The Lady Barrister: This is because a solicitor will often have to hire a barrister to do certain types of court work. The example for today is a barrister called Stephanie Heijdra. She also runs the Winvolved Legal Consultancy using www.winvolvedlegal.co.uk Her name is very unique so you shoul...


Summerfield Browne: Most firms will say they are modern with a unique setup. For example whilst Cambridge has a full 5 stars, the London office has only 3.5 stars at the time we checked. The firm states offices in London, Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Market Harborough, and Leicester. The law ...


Thaxted Legal Immigration: 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. Immigration is an area of law like Divorce and Moto...


Smith & Graham Solicitors: People have ended up https: www.walesonline.co.uk news homes-property home-buyers-warned-scam-could-21957792" handing over tens of thousands of pounds< a> to fraudsters something based on nothing more than an official-looking email saying they need to pay the house deposi...


Brown & Co Solicitors: Here are some of the resources we use that you might not have known about or things to watch for you might not have thought about. Plus dozens of review pages both monitored and unmonitored. However there are two very important aspects to deal with from that sentence. no o...


Mac Jones Solicitors: The things we use to evaluate a firm are probably things most potential clients do as well. The majority are very positive and (unusually) very long and well written with plenty of information about what work was being done, the names of people handling the case, ...


Hill House Chambers Barristers: Typically we refer, like most consumers, to the third party boards such as Google, Yelp, Yell, Trustpilot, etc. and represent you in court."< div> ​We've obviously summarised their much longer description https: www.hillhousechambers.co.uk directaccess" found here<...


Stowe Family Law Solicitors: The second impressive thing we'd point out is the firm's opening hours. You have to search for your specific local office to see reviews about it only. class="infoquote "Within our 80-plus strong team of leading UK divorce lawyers, we have forensic accountants, ...


LRose Law Ltd: The only difference will be on whether they charge you for running the case or provide something such as a no win, no fee agreement. We've worked with law firms for over 20 years and the things we look for on a law firm's website when deciding whether to include them...


Bellax Solicitors: Typically the 'Blog' or 'News' section of a law firm's website is just another selection of articles saying how great the firm is or a single filler article showing that they thought about doing it, then quickly gave up. A firm that handles a single case types such as Motori...


JPS Walker Solicitors: 100% compensation means there are no fees whether your case wins or loses. If you're someone with a less than perfect memory then, it's probably a good idea to bookmark the correct site for coming back to later. . These can be city, county, or country based. Often t...


The Legal Practice Solicitors: The official website is www.thelegalpractice.co.uk but again, www.thelegalpractice.com is owned by a different firm. The most common to make people not want to use a law firm is if there are plenty of negative reviews about their case solicitor never being contactable....


Young & Co Solicitors: That doesn't mean we love everything about them. At the time of writing there were a few things on their website we thought could be better for clients. The firm doesn't list testimonials on their website, but that's fine. That's because practically every house purchase sale...


Lefevres Scotland Ltd: But if your case wins the solicitor you hire may take a cut of your settlement. That might not sound like something amazing, but in reality the majority of legal professionals have pulled away from Legal Aid cases completely. Sometimes even all the images look the same. Usua...


David Stinson & Co Solicitors: The latter means that you have nothing to pay whether your case wins or loses . On the David Stinson & Co website there is https: www.davidstinson.co.uk testimonials" a page marked 'Testimonials'< a> but there aren't any actual reviews on the page. class="in...


Cook's Solicitors: a genuinely local firm but with a much larger firm's resources behind it. That's also something we would consider a good sign that people outside the industry might not be aware of. class="infoquote "Dianne Sumner has over twenty-five years' experience of helping pe...


Swain and Co Solicitors: There are unhelpful positive reviews too, such as: class="infoquote "Easy to find, parking near by, less than one minutes walking from the train station" "Food and service, top notch"< div> But if you read through the actual comments such as the second one do...


Fentimans My Law Matters: (No, really.) Whilst there is a negative comment about this firm on https: www.google.com search?q=my+law+matters&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB926GB926&oq=My+Law+Matters&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j46i175i199i512l2j0i512j46i175i199i512j0i512j69i60.780j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x...


Frazer Coogans Solicitors: Always kept us informed. Whilst we work very hard to find as many alternative options for people to help with legal matters, sometimes you do just need a regular high street law firm. That's probably why independent review forums such as

Burton & Co Quality Solicitors: Especially those with https: www.theguardian.com money 2019 aug 24 the-45000-deposit-for-our-first-home-was-stolen-and-the-banks-did-nothing" huge house deposits waiting to buy< a> a property. For example John Wood qualified as a solicitor in 1977, Judith Brennan in 1987...


One Law Solicitors & Barristers: Their main branding is the OneLaw Chambers name but some review sites and official pages list them as OneLaw Ltd. So how do you know which ones are experienced, qualified, and right for you? There are of course several good resources to help you such as the various law s...


Beers Solicitors LLP: class="infoquote "Whilst we have maintained our core value of outstanding client service, the use of the most up to date technology enables us to deliver innovative and cost effective solutions to our clients whether they be local or national."< div> The site is ...


Disrepair Claims UK: for personal injury, such as pneumonia, asthma, gastrointestinal issues, or even anxiety and depression ... So whilst we still are not keen on the whole CMC thing as a general rule, in this instance using a company like DisrepairClaim.co.uk may be the only available option ...


Simper Law: For example several are related litigation matters (e.g. For some reason though, the legal industry still has the complete opposite mentality. class="infoquote "Between them, our solicitors have around 50 years' experience in law, and are passionate about working with...


RM Solicitors: Please be aware though that reviews for law firms are very different to reviews for things like restaurants or hairdressers. Yes, if the firm is registered with a law society then you can usually find out quite a bit about them independently. Normally this is done by simply ...


Ullah Law Associates: There is a difference (and we'll tell you how to spot it below) between a firm where all the solicitors try to handle all the various case types - and a firm where each of the solicitors are specialists in their own area of law. If you check out the page on the law society...


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