Hi all,
Other than looking online for a solicitor that deals with the relevent part of law, how does one choose other than hoping for the best?
Maybe have a free consultation with a few to guage what they are like, but maybe not too reliable as they will be in ‘sales’ mode..
Any advice appreciated.

Personally I’ve always asked around and gone with word of mouth and recommendations.

As someone in that profession, it’s very hard. Probably the best way is by personal recommendation – can any of your friends recommend anyone?

The directories can also be a good ‘general’ guide for law firms that are top of the pile in a particular area – they are Legal500 and Chambers and Partners, but bear in mind that firms pay for them, so other than perhaps getting an idea of which firms do a particular type of work, take with a pinch of salt (particularly the individual recommendations – I know from working with people in those directories that what it says they’re good at and what they are actually good at are two different things).

It also depends on what service you want – a diddly high st firm is probably going to be fine for residential conveyancing, but struggle if you want a highly-leveraged corporate finance deal with offshore elements, for example. Location is also a factor – generally there are better firms in larger cities.

Probably the best way is by personal recommendation – can any of your friends recommend anyone?

But keep in mind that most people don’t have a vast amount of experience of alternatives. If DodgeTheBan.com cost you £2k but you avoid that 6 months driving ban you think they are great, but actually, you might have the same outcome representing yourself or with the local criminal defence practice for £300. Likewise, if “HouseSolicitors.com” seemed to be cheaper than everywhere else and were very helpful, and didn’t delay your conveyancing at all that might seem good – but its only 15 yrs later when you go to sell the property you discover that some of the paperwork trail was a bit thin and you are coughing up for indemnity policies to cover their shoddiness. And not every bad experience is caused by the solicitor – if you have a hopeless case you are likely to lose no matter how good your representative; if you are poor at communicating or leave everything to the last minute it’s likely your solicitor/experience will not be as good as it could be.

Depends on the area of law. As I work in commercial insurance if it is a commercial aspect of law I tend to look at who are on our insurers panels for the relevant aspect of law as they are generally carefully chosen and have to go through a fair amount of due diligence. We also have fairly extensive, albeit at a distance, knowledge of how well each one handles matters.

If it is personal law then I tend to go for recommendations from F&F

Find one who operates in the 20th century instead of the 19th.

Rowley Birkin?