How to find a good solicitor

Check the SRA register first

Anyone in England and Wales who calls themselves a solicitor has to be on the Solicitors Regulation Authority register, and so does the firm they work for. The entry tells you whether the individual holds a current practising certificate, whether the firm is authorised, and whether any conditions or disciplinary findings sit against either. It takes about a minute, and it is the only check that separates a solicitor from someone using the word.

Two things about the register catch people out.

The first is that it covers England and Wales only. A firm in Glasgow or Edinburgh is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, and a firm in Belfast by the Law Society of Northern Ireland, so neither will appear on the SRA register. That is not a warning sign, it is a different legal system. Every Scottish and Northern Irish firm on this site was checked against its own regulator instead, which is why those cards carry no SRA number.

The second is that “regulated by the SRA” and “on the Roll of Solicitors” are not the same statement. The Roll is a list of everyone admitted as a solicitor, including people who no longer practise. The practising certificate is what says they can act for you today.

The prices firms must publish

Most people assume legal prices are a mystery until the first meeting. For six services they are not.

The SRA Transparency Rules require any firm that offers these services to individuals to publish the price on its website:

Service	What must be priced
Residential conveyancing	Freehold and leasehold sales and purchases, mortgages and re-mortgages
Estate administration after a death	Collecting and distributing UK assets where the estate is not contested
Immigration applications	Applications and First-tier Tribunal appeals, excluding asylum
Motoring offences	Summary-only road traffic offences at the magistrates’ court, dealt with at a single hearing
Employment claims	Bringing an unfair or wrongful dismissal claim to the Employment Tribunal
Debt recovery for businesses	Claims up to £100,000, plus licensing applications for business premises

The rules also say what the published price has to contain, and this is the part worth reading before you call anyone. It must give the total cost, or an average or a range where a total is not practicable. It must set out the basis of the charges, including hourly rates or fixed fees. It must name the experience and qualifications of whoever does the work and of their supervisor. It must describe likely disbursements and what they cost, say whether VAT applies, and list the key stages with timescales for each.

A firm that publishes a bare “conveyancing from £750” and nothing else is not meeting that rule, which tells you how it treats the rules generally. A firm with no website at all must give the same information on request.

Accreditations worth looking for

Every firm describes itself as experienced. Accreditations are the part a non-lawyer can actually verify, because an independent body checked the firm against a published standard.

• Conveyancing Quality Scheme. The Law Society’s accreditation for residential property teams. Most lenders now expect it, and it is the single most useful mark on a conveyancing firm.
• Lexcel. The Law Society’s practice management and client care standard, assessed on site and re-assessed periodically. It says nothing about the law and a lot about whether your calls get returned.
• Resolution. Family specialists who commit to a non-confrontational approach, with a separate specialist accreditation on top for particular areas.
• Law Society panels. Children Law, Family Law, Advanced Family Law, Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence panels each require evidence of casework, not just interest.
• Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. The mark to look for on complex wills, trusts and estates.

Accreditations appear on the firm cards throughout this site for exactly this reason. Blacks Solicitors leads the Leeds list partly on the strength of an audited service record, and the conveyancing pick in every city holds the Conveyancing Quality Scheme where the city has a firm that does.

Registers in Scotland and Northern Ireland

The checks are the same shape in all three legal systems, but the bodies are different and so are some of the marks.

	England and Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Register to search	Solicitors Regulation Authority	Law Society of Scotland	Law Society of Northern Ireland
Published prices required by rule	Yes, for six consumer services	No equivalent rule	No equivalent rule
Complaints about service go to	Legal Ombudsman	Scottish Legal Complaints Commission	Law Society of Northern Ireland

Two practical consequences. In Scotland, published prices are less common, so the fee conversation happens on the phone and the written terms of business matter more. And a Scottish firm that also practises in England will usually hold both authorisations, which is why Burness Paull appears on the Glasgow list as regulated by the Law Society of Scotland with a separate SRA number for its English work.

In Northern Ireland, conveyancing runs under the Law Society’s Home Charter Scheme, which sets what your solicitor must explain and when. Membership of it is the mark to look for on a Belfast property firm.

Matching the firm to the size of the job

The largest firms in any city are built for transactions and disputes with a lot of money at stake. They will not take a house move or a simple will, and the ones that do will charge partner rates for it.

The reverse is also true. A four-partner high street firm is the right choice for a purchase, a will or an uncontested divorce, and the wrong choice for a shareholder dispute that needs a litigation department.

The middle case is the one people get wrong: a family with a business. A separation that involves company shares, a divorce with a farm in it, or an estate that owns a trading company all need a firm that has both departments in the same building, because the alternative is two firms and a co-ordination problem you pay for twice.

Six questions for the first call

Six questions, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Who will do the work day to day? The right answer names a person and a grade. “One of our team” means nobody has been assigned.
2. What will it cost, and what is that based on? A fixed fee, or an hourly rate with an estimate of hours. Anything vaguer is a decision to charge you later.
3. What is not included? Disbursements, search fees, court fees and VAT. A quote that quietly excludes £600 of searches is not a cheaper quote.
4. What happens if it takes longer than the estimate? The honest answer is that they will tell you before the extra work starts.
5. Who covers your file when you are away? Long matters outlast holidays and job moves.
6. How do I complain if I need to? Every firm must publish its complaints procedure and tell you about the Legal Ombudsman. A firm that stumbles over this question has never thought about it.

Ask for the estimate in writing. The written version arrives in the client care letter, which is the document that sets out the price, the people and the complaints route, and it is worth reading properly rather than filing.

The checks in order

1. Search the register for the firm and the person. Confirm the practising certificate.
2. Read the published price for your service, and check it names who does the work.
3. Look for the accreditation that matches the job.
4. Call two firms, ask the six questions, and compare the answers rather than the prices.
5. Get the estimate in writing before you instruct.

Everything above takes under an hour, which is less time than most people spend choosing a sofa and roughly the same money at stake on the smallest legal job in this list.