Choosing a solicitor

[Mamma2727494]

I contacted a solicitor using a recommended list from national charity. The solicitor is personally named in the Legal 500 as is their firm. Their LinkedIn bio and firm website bio highlights publications. They moved to a new law firm recently in a consultant position, but both the old and new firms are both in Legal 500.

I’ve explained our circumstances and they have said they would be able to help us. They were also very generous with their advice, explaining things well, and suggesting we go down a path that is a bit different to the one we intended. The fees are surprisingly reasonable.

Maybe the only caveat is that the solicitor is not local to us so I’d have to travel if I wanted to meet them in person and my partner would have to take time off work to look after the kids so that I can do so. My partner would prefer it if I see them in person at least once rather than do everything online.

When I’ve contacted other solicitors they have been very nice but it’s been purely information gathering and they were careful about not offering advice (which is completely what I expected), and they just said yes we can help you with what you want to do. One of them is local and convenient for us.

I’m tempted to go with the first solicitor because it feels easier to trust them. Whereas it’s hard to tell what the others would be like to work with until we start paying for meetings.

If I’m being a bit over cautious it’s because my family received incorrect advice from a highly street solicitor recently so we are trying to fix the issue. I’m hoping we can work with someone who will say “these are the options, I recommend x” rather than just take instruction.

But I’m so new to all this, I don’t really know if my expectations or judgement are right. At the very least a recommendation from a national charity and being Legal 500-named is good enough?

I went with a solicitor close to me, and yet I never met them in person, it’s all been done online.

I wouldn't go with one you are dubious about simply because they are geographically closer. Its hard and risky enough without making things more difficult by ruling out people because of geography. My only personal experience is some 20 years ago. Three of us were involved, two of us only ever communicated with him by phone or email, the third actually met the bloke but not until we were well into the process. It all went really well.

Go with the first one and have a meeting over Teams. There's literally no need to visit someone in person when you can get all the contact you need online.

From the other side, as a lawyer I find there’s a lot of value to engaging with my clients via a video call and not just via email. But I don’t think that being able to engage with them face to face makes a material difference, other than when there are a lot of participants required and then it can be easier. From what you’d described I would go with the lawyer who has given you the most confidence and have discussions via video call where needed.

I work for a legal 500 and the vast majority of our meetings are by Teams. Solicitors prefer it because it's more time efficient for them

Thank you. I have engaged with several
solicitors in initial calls. Two, both of whom seem to have very respected positions in their field, have said opposing things with regards to whether tax fees are applied in my situation or not. Whether they are or aren’t would have a significant impact on the decisions we need to make. I went back to both of them to clarify and they both repeated what they said. I don’t think my query is a particularly niche or unusual one.

I tried to google it and various legal websites and AI seems to favour one over the other. But it was the solicitor I liked the most who suggested an option that goes against the grain of general advice. I thought this was because she was tailoring her advice to our specific situation but now I’m very confused.

I’m also conscious that there the free time you can ask of solicitors is very limited, and I also don’t want to annoy them with my google research when they are the experts.

I may start a new thread with more specific details but any thoughts on what I can do? I have engaged with others but they are more cagey with advice and I think we’re at the point now where we would need to be taken on as clients and start paying. Would an IFA be able to offer more specific advice on IHT and whether or not they are applied to certain types of trusts.

yes OP, I think you need to be a bit more specific about your issue, if you want more advice here.