If you have instructed a law firm for the first time, you may be confused over the level of service you should expect to receive from them. This would not be any surprise really, as very few people who have not studied law, will really have any true appreciation of what standards of service they should expect from any law firm.
First and foremost, would be the initial advice that you receive from the law firm, once you have instructed 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. The solicitors main job is to provide you with the legal advice and most will actually do this part of their job very well. 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.
The solicitor should make it perfectly clear, in the appointment, if they intend to take on your case and pursue additional action. It is at this point where you can become more actively 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. Of course, as with anything in life, some of these issues may be out of their hands to a certain extent, therefore do try to be realistic with these types of expectations. Be especially mindful of whether or not the certain actions require liaisons with third parties. If this is the case, you may not be fair to blame the law firm, when the third party holds proceedings up.
If a law firm does go ahead and represent you fully, you need to ensure that they are communicating with you on a regular basis, in order to keep you informed of the progress of your case. This is the most common area for where law firms slip up in their service to clients. In short, do not allow them to get away with this. If needs be, call them and chase them for information. If they appear to be ignoring you persistently, you really should threaten them with an official complaint. Unfortunately, too many law firms will try to get away with making phone calls that they construe to be non-essential, but which you may deem otherwise.
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 is another area of law firms service that notoriously slips down. If there are any aspects of the bill which you feel are wrong, or you do not understand, query this at your earliest convenience. If you remain certain that there is a mistake, 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. Therefore, these may not really be of any use to you in this regard. You need a directory which will rate the relevant firms accordingly and allow you to select the best for yourself.
http://www.Solicitor.info is a solicitors UK list you can trust, based on feedback from its own clients. Finding a solicitor has never been easier at solicitor.info
Article Source: The Minimum Service To Expect From Your Solicitor