Everybody wants to think that they have hired the best lawyer in the field. A winner. So, how do you choose the right lawyer?

Strangely most solicitors do not keep statistics on how many cases they win! Individual solicitors remember the winners (and losers), but it is rare for firms to be able to say, “we win x% of the litigation cases we take on”. You could try asking but you may get some imprecise answers. One of the problems is that it is difficult to say what a winner is. Drawing up a will or doing a conveyancing job for example does not create, generally, a winner and a loser. Even some types of litigation, such as divorce, rarely create an outright winner, very few couples who get divorced would happily relive the experience and most would consider that they have both been the loser.

So, there is a problem with asking a solicitor; “Do you win your cases?” or “Are you any good?” So how do you find the right lawyer? You will have to rely most of the time on the sorts of things discussed above – how have they proved their expertise, press commentary, award wins, accreditations, website content?

Lots of people still choose a solicitor, like a plumber, by relying on word-of-mouth recommendation. Did they do a good job for your friend? That may be OK, but your friend may have had a totally different legal problem or have been dealt with by a different solicitor at the firm. A big benefit that we have now, to help with this problem, is published consumer reviews. Does the solicitor subscribe to something like Trustpilot and what review scores have they got? Just because a solicitor does not use that service does not mean that they are not any good, but it is another piece of evidence to help you choose.

So, there is a lot to consider when choosing a solicitor and we have not even touched on the huge and difficult subject of what you pay, which will be covered in another article.

Our site can help you navigate your way through all this and take some of the pain out of it.