How do you Choose a Good Divorce Solicitor?
In many instances, such a question acts as a trigger to those who simply must regale you with their divorce woe and what they perceive to be their solicitor’s failings - in terms of communication, fees and results. In some cases, such stories are indeed justified and other times not.
Putting the quality of any legal team aside, you need to recognise that divorces are seldom easy or pleasant experiences with no ‘real winners’ at the end of the process. Therefore, divorce is never something one should undertake lightly - without having first explored other options and giving the matter plenty of thought and consideration.
Once you’re committed to the idea, finding a firm that offers the right balance of appropriate experience, service and cost is key in enabling you to move on - from both a financial and family perspective. This is particularly the case if children and extended family are involved.
We advise you base your search, for the ideal law firm, on the following basis:
Can you talk to the company before placing your business? – It’s important that you feel both comfortable and confident in your choice of law-firm. See if they offer a free initial consultation so that you can ask and get answers to some of your ‘burning’ questions. This will help to provide you with peace of mind in relation to your choice of firm and their abilities.
Do they specialise in divorce? – There are solicitors and….. there are solicitors! You don’t want one that does lots of conveyancing and the occasional divorce case; what you want is a bonified ‘family solicitor.’ This will ensure that you have selected a firm with an in depth and up to date knowledge of divorce law and that’s ‘savvy’ as to what can be achieved within the confines of divorce law. Look for a firm that has an excellent divorce client- reviews.
Who will be responsible for your case? – This is rather important. Very often, a bad client experience stems from a lack of continuity, in terms of the staff dealing with their particular case. This leads to frustration, time escalation and mistakes. It’s important that you deal with the same individual(s) throughout to build both a rapport and an in-depth understanding of your matter; this generates high levels of efficiency aside of giving you complete peace of mind.
Do they have a good knowledge of the family law judges in your area? – Again, this is important since such knowledge gives a legal team valuable levels of insight as to how they can effectively prepare; this ultimately does have an impact on the sort of results that can be achieved.
Should you go for the cheapest? – Never! As tempting as ‘cheap’ sounds, your decision shouldn’t be based solely on cost. Rather like the ‘cheap’ builder whose always available….you need to ask yourself why and would they represent a real financial saving in the long-term?
Of course, you want competitive fees, but also, you want a law firm that’s more likely to achieve the best possible outcome for you. By basing your decision solely on who is the cheapest, you could potentially lose far more than you ever hoped to save - from both a financial and personal perspective!
We would always advise that you look at ‘Review Solicitors;’ the largest, independent, client-led, review platform for the UK legal market.
RJS Family Law is ranked as No1 locally for family law and scores an incredible 4.9 out of 105 client reviews. 94% of clients said that they were highly satisfied and that they would recommend with 96% stating that RJS Family Law offered value for money!
We will give you a personal, one - to - one, service allowing you to deal with the same legal experts throughout your matter
For a FREE initial consultation: rjs@rjsfamilylaw.co.uk