How solicitors are chosen and put in order
How Solicitors Guide picks and orders solicitors, with the register, fee and complaints checks worth making before you instruct one.
A solicitor who handles divorces all week may never have filed a work visa, and a firm that drafts wills all day may not run injury claims. So each list covers one area of law in one city, and four questions settle who appears and in what order.
What the firm mainly does
First, the firm’s actual work. Firms whose daily work is the area on the list come before firms that only dip into it. The lists are of solicitors’ firms, so claims management companies, unregulated will writers and sites that only collect enquiries to pass on are left out. The pages for will disputes and medical negligence are for firms that act in those cases regularly. The buttons inside a list, such as sponsor licences or road traffic accidents, pick out firms that say they do that work.
A reputation that has lasted
Then we read what former clients have posted about the firm for anyone to see. A short burst of praise should not outweigh years of steady feedback, so we set it against how long the firm has been practising.
What the firm shows on its own channels
We also read the firm’s website and official profiles. Are its solicitors named, with the work each does? Does it say whether fees are fixed or hourly, what they cover and what is extra? Firms in England and Wales must publish prices for some kinds of work, including uncontested probate, immigration other than asylum and unfair dismissal claims, so we look for them. Firms that set this out plainly are easier to compare.
Independence
We set the order ourselves, on merit, and go back over each list now and again. Appearing here costs a firm nothing, and no payment alters the criteria. Once a firm has passed selection it can add Pro, a fuller page that shows its solicitors, languages and ways of charging, or Top, one of three reserved early places. Each is always labelled. We take no referral fee and no share of any legal fee.
Check the register before you instruct
Checking authorisation is up to you, because we do not do it for each firm. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates solicitors in England and Wales. Its Solicitors Register shows whether a firm or individual is authorised, and Check a solicitor’s record lists published decisions, such as conditions on a practising certificate, fines and findings of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Not every decision is published. Scotland’s solicitors answer to the Law Society of Scotland and Northern Ireland’s to the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and both offer a Find a Solicitor search.
How the fee works
Ask whether the fee is fixed, hourly or a share of what you recover. A fixed fee covers a stated list of work, so ask what is left out, including VAT and costs paid to others, such as court or search fees. With an hourly rate, ask for an estimate and for updates as the bill grows. Before work starts, the firm should send a client care letter setting out who will act, how the fee is worked out, the likely total and how to complain. No solicitor can promise an outcome. “No win, no fee” usually means a conditional fee agreement: read what you would owe if you lose and what share of any award the firm takes.
Immigration and legal aid
In general, immigration advice may be given only by a regulated solicitor, barrister or legal executive, or by an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, which used to be the OISC. Our lists are of solicitors. No one can promise a visa decision. Legal aid covers only some kinds of case, depends on your means and changes over time, so ask the firm whether it holds a legal aid contract.
If something goes wrong
Complain to the firm first. In England and Wales, if it has not settled the matter within eight weeks or you are unhappy with its reply, the Legal Ombudsman can look at the complaint, free of charge and within time limits. Misconduct goes to the SRA. In Scotland the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission handles complaints about service and passes conduct complaints to the Law Society of Scotland. In Northern Ireland, take it to the firm, then to the Law Society of Northern Ireland, with the Lay Observer as the final stage.