Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a Solicitor?

A Solic­i­tor is a per­son who deals with legal mat­ters on behalf of clients. Solic­i­tors in Eng­land and Wales who wish to prac­tice must pay an annu­al fee to obtain a Prac­tic­ing Cer­tifi­cate. There are two grad­u­ate routes for prospec­tive Solic­i­tors, either with a qual­i­fy­ing law degree and pass­ing the Legal Prac­tice Course, or hold­ing a non-law ​“qual­i­fy­ing degree” plus a con­ver­sion course, pri­or to enrolling on the Legal Prac­tice Course. Once the Legal Prac­tice Course has been com­plet­ed, the prospec­tive Solic­i­tor must under­take a two year train­ing con­tract. Solic­i­tors must also com­plete 16 hours CPD train­ing per year, to evi­dence fur­ther devel­op­ment and knowl­edge retention.

2. Why do I need a Solicitor?

Not all legal mat­ters require legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. How­ev­er, many peo­ple choose to instruct Solic­i­tors for var­i­ous fac­tors includ­ing time con­straints and case com­plex­i­ty. Peo­ple also instruct Solic­i­tors for peace of mind, know­ing that Solic­i­tors are trained in their spe­cif­ic field, are reg­u­lat­ed by the Solic­i­tors Reg­u­la­tion Author­i­ty (SRA), adhere to a strict code of con­duct, and car­ry Pro­fes­sion­al Indem­ni­ty Insur­ance (PII).

3. What Ser­vices do we offer?

We are a spe­cial­ist Pri­vate client firm and have always been so. We have pur­pose­ful­ly lim­it­ed the ser­vices we offer so that you can rest assured that the firm, as well as our staff, are experts in their respec­tive fields.

See our services

4. Why are we different?

Many claim to pro­vide great ser­vice but we back it up with tan­gi­ble credentials

• The Law Soci­ety reg­u­lar­ly recog­nise our efforts through awards and accreditations
• Through our two Law Soci­ety qual­i­ty marks, we are inde­pen­dent­ly assessed twice a year, to check the qual­i­ty and effi­cien­cy of our ser­vice and systems
• Most of our work is from word of mouth refer­rals from hap­py clients
• We mon­i­tor client feed­back. In 2012, 100% of clients said they would use again and 99% said they would rec­om­mend us, an increase of +1% from 2011.

5. Do I need to vis­it the office?

We specif­i­cal­ly moved to our cur­rent office to make vis­it­ing the office eas­i­er for clients. We are con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed on the edge of sev­er­al towns and vil­lages, and our office offers free park­ing with a ground floor, easy-access meet­ing room.

How­ev­er, we act for clients all over the UK, many of whom have nev­er vis­it­ed our office or met our staff face to face. We are hap­py to fit into your lifestyle and loca­tion. You will receive the same lev­el of care atten­tion whether or not you vis­it our office.

6. Who will look after my file?

Your file will only be han­dled by your ded­i­cat­ed, and ful­ly qual­i­fied, mem­ber of staff. Our fee earn­ing staff all hold cur­rent prac­tic­ing cer­tifi­cates and are spe­cial­ists in their fields.

7. How can I con­tact my fee earner?

You can con­tact your fee earn­er how­ev­er you wish, and we will con­tact you by what­ev­er method you would pre­fer us to. We know clear and fre­quent com­mu­ni­ca­tion is the key to good ser­vice, and want to do so in a for­mat that suits and helps you. So whether it’s face to face, over the phone, email, let­ters via Roy­al Mail, or even Twit­ter, we hope to make our ser­vice con­ve­nient for you.