Five questions when choosing a lawyer

The legal sector has always been a worry to many people because of the opaque prices, and it's going to become more complicated with the impending Legal Services Act.  

There will be more choice, new regulators and many new firms launching. While this has many benefits, it also has the problem that many businesses appear to be manned by qualified and properly-regulated lawyers, when in fact they are using inexperienced people or less-stringent regulation.
The most important steps you should take to make sure you get a good solicitor are:

Is your lawyer a qualified and properly regulated solicitor? To make sure the firm is using solicitors (after all, if you are paying for legal advice you want it from a highly-qualified professional) it is important to make sure they are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This can be done by asking to see their practicing certificate or by checking online. 

Is your lawyer properly insured? Solicitor firms should have professional indemnity insurance of at least £2m to protect clients in case they make a mistake and cause you to suffer a loss. This is important as currently the insurance market for solicitors is very difficult and some are not able to get insurance. To make sure they are properly insured, ask to see their certificate. (Lawyers that cannot get insurance use insurance from the Assigned Risks Pool. This scheme is a last resort but it does give the customer protection in case of a negligence claim. However, it's a bad sign about the firm that they’ve had to use it.)

Do you have a detailed list of rates and charges? Make sure you take control and get all fees quoted and documented up front, as you don’t want to be hit with a large bill or unexpected charges. Ask for a breakdown of what is involved for the cost. Also, enquire what happens if the lawyer has under-quoted for the amount of time they will need to complete your case. Many solicitors will now carry out work at fixed prices.

Do you know who will actually carry out the work? At a solicitor’s office you will meet the partner, but is it him or his secretary that will actually do the work? Also ask what arrangements are in place if he/she is away and something comes up. Find out if the firm is part of a larger network that can provide support and assistance in case there is a gap in experience, knowledge or workload.

Does the firm have good risk management procedures? You should make sure a firm has stringent procedures in place to make sure it doesn’t make a mistake or miss something. Ask if they have an up-to-date membership of The Law Society’s Lexcel Scheme or the Conveyancing Quality Scheme in place, or alternatively if they have other processes in place to ensure the quality of service.

Gary Yantin is managing director of legal network High Street Lawyer

This article first appeared on Real Business http://realbusiness.co.uk/advice_and_guides/five-questions-when-choosing-a-lawyer

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Legal Services Act update

We are now only about 10 weeks away from the 6^th October and the key date when non lawyers should be able to provide legal services as Alternative Business Structures. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, who are expected to be a key regulator of ABS under the Act have recently announced that due to parliamentary delays they will not be ready to regulate bodies by the 6 October.

The Council of Licenced Conveyancers are expected to be ready to act as a regulator and are already receiving applications from bodies wishing to be ABS’.

It will be interesting to see if the CLC’s gain may be the SRA’s loss or whether there will be differing levels of regulation once the SRA declare themselves ready.

A report published recently by accountants H W Fisher found that 36% of SME firms that they surveyed did not think that they would be affected by the Legal Services Act. Only 11% of firms have considered trying to raise external capital. The full report can be found here: http://www.hwfisher.co.uk/uploadedfiles/newsitems/SMELegalPracticesSurvey2011.pdf

See if you are ready for the Legal Services Act and how you compare to other firms by taking our own survey.

http://debate.highstreetlawyer.com/ 

HighStreetLawyer.com as a consumer brand

Since January we have been referring work to the firms who have piloted our scheme with us. As the number of firms we talk to increases and as we settle into the second half of this year, our consumer campaign is set to intensify. We are currently working on a number of collaboration agreements with introducers of legal work including legal comparison sites and non lawyer retailers and referrers.

The referral debate

The outgoing Law Society president announced just before the end of her term of office that the Ministry of Justice should consider banning referral fees. Referral fees are an ongoing bone of contention amongst solicitors who would prefer not to pay a third party for introducing work. However, there is a huge difference between paying a third or more of your fee simply for the introduction of work that may or may not complete and outsourcing your marketing, customer care and some due diligence to another organisation. Such fees are now an accepted part of the legal industry and as shown since our launch in January are not of concern to solicitors or to clients provided the value that they add to a matter is transparently explained and provided that all parties comply with the relevant codes.

HighStreetLawyer.com as an umbrella group

We now have a number of preferred supplier arrangements in place for various services and are working on many more.

We have partnered with leading Genealogy company Finders. Finders provide a number of services to solicitors and to the public including a missing wills and missing beneficiary service as well as specialist probate insurance and advice on potential bona vacantia cases where the State stands to inherit unclaimed estates. Finders offer significant discounts to HSL members for all of their services. HSL members are eligible to become panel firms for the referral of legal cases.

Jennings Costs lawyers provide a bespoke service to solicitors in debt collection matters both where firms are chasing their own clients for fees and where firms wish to outsource debt recovery work to a specialist firm. Jennings also provide costs drafting services, which are discounted to HSL members.

Follow us

You can follow us on twitter @highstlawyer and linkedin. Over the next few weeks, our MD Gary Yantin will be in Bournemouth, Southampton, Croydon, all over London, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Liverpool and  Birmingham. Any firm interested in finding out more about HighStreetLawyer.com should email gary@highstreetlawyer.com for an appointment.