Once you have chosen a solicitor, what is an acceptable service standard you should receive and what happens if it is poor?
If you have instructed a UK Solicitor for the first time, you may be confused over the level of service you should expect to receive from them. This is not unusual because not many understand the law or have any idea of the service they should be receiving.
The first thing and most important, is the advice you initially get from your solicitor once you have appointed them. This is up to you to ensure that you are taking in all that the solicitor is saying to you, and if there are any points which you are struggling to understand, ask them to go over these again. Lawyers general are very good at giving advice. Once you have had the main appointment with them, they should then send you a letter soon afterwards, to clarify the main legal points that had arisen in the appointment.
It should be evident if the solicitor is going to take on your case. Once at this point is might be worth getting involved. It is a good idea to ask the solicitor to give you an approximate timescale for when they believe relevant actions will be completed. Some instances might be out of their hands as with most things in life, so you must try to be sensible and realistic about any outcomes you my wish for. Be especially mindful of whether or not the certain actions require liaisons with third parties. When someone other than your legal solicitor holds things up and causes delays, It would be unfair for this to reflect on your lawyer.
Regular communication is essential once you have taken on a legal solicitor services to keep you up to date with events. This is the most common area for where law firms slip up in their service to clients. They should not get away with this. If you have to, ask for information on your case. If you feel you are being ignored then you should put in an official complaint. All too many solicitors will not contact you unless they feel it is absolutely necessary.
Once you have used the services of a firm of solicitors, when you receive the bill, make sure you check absolutely every listing for accuracy. This area of the law service that is not great. If the bill is incorrect then let the lawyer know straight away. If you remain certain that there is a mistake and want to complain about a solicitor, pursue a complaint to a senior partner. If this remains unresolved, you are entitled to approach the Legal Complaints Service, who may well take up this complaint for you.
If you are particularly concerned over these issues, you can always use a good solicitors’ directory to find the law firm that you feel will be most able to deal with your specific case. Most solicitors’ directories will only provide you with basic information, where law firms are concerned. In this instance this might not be of any use to you. Directories which allow you to pick a lawyer based on what other people have experienced with them are the best. http://www.Solicitor.info is a good example of a solicitors directory that will enable you to do exactly this.