How to Choose a Solicitor
CONSUMERS' GUIDE TO THE PROFESSIONS-2 By R. A. CLINE
SOLICITORS have a fairly gruelling training which equips them for an infinite variety of legal situations; their clients' affairs refuse to confine themselves within tidy categories. You were rather impressed by that young solicitor who so effectively persuaded the magistrates that when you collided with the bus, you were more sinned against than sinning; perhaps he could handle this tiresome letter from the town hall telling you to pull down the third-floor extension which a reluctant builder has with painful slow- ness completed only a week ago. You expect him to be ready with advice on town planning, tax evasion, wards of court, the lot. But can he really rise to such multiple demands? Is it pru- dent to entrust your affairs to one solicitor on the hypothesis that he has unlimited versatility and, if it is not, does it follow that you should have a team at your disposal, each to be called on to advise within his own specialised field? Ideally the latter is the better course but it is hard to follow.
For the guidance of the consumer of legal advice it is necessary at the outset to take a panoramic look at the market and classify the various brands which are available to him. First there are the giant firms, about two or three dozen of them, in the City (of London). They have huge staffs, uniformed commissionaires who fetch and carry for them, a sub-layer of young qualified solicitors working for them and aspiring to become partners, conveyancing and litigating clerks, trust departments, company departments. These firms can be spotted without difficulty; their letterheads display a chandelier of partners' names running in some cases to as many as twelve. Everything about them is seven feet tall; their clients are the larger corporations, govern- ments and people with ten-figure incomes. If you want to be represented by them, for example in some negotiations for a take-over, in the hope that their grandeur will brush off on you, you will have to pay appropriately and you will cer- tainly get fur-lined treatment. But it is foolish to expect to have the ear of the senior partner, any time you telephone, just for the asking.
Coming to the middle bracket of firms where the air is less thin, you will find a host of large firms with about seven or eight partners. These can be sub-divided into a number of groups. First there is the old-established vsoP family firm looking as though nothing had changed since the Forsyte saga, but in fact quietly efficient. This type of solicitor is not very keen on litigation, the criminal courts and other such rough activities; he has built his reputation on a combination of gentlemanly but foxy prudence which keeps the client away from harm. He tends to be irritat- ingly slow, very cautious, and burdened with an unfashionable amount of integrity. Good if you have a son who has been trapped by a pop group and wants to turn the trust funds into guitars. Particularly good if you want to be on nodding terms with the Inspector of Taxes, as the latter probably trusts him. Outstanding if the one thing in life you want is not to be deceived.
Then there are the medium-large rugged firms to be found within a ten-mile radius of the Law Courts and close to the Assize Courts of the larger towns. This is where a detailed guide would be invaluable, naming names and giving ratings• for honesty, speed, efficiency and
costliness. Perhaps one day the libel laws will be- come less menacing and some Raymond Post- gate of the Law will award his stars. Meanwhile the following broad hints will have to make do : (i) You may be interviewed by a partner in the firm on your first visit, but unless you are a man (or woman) of weighty business do not expect to see him each time you are in trouble. You will be handed over to the care of managing clerks (now called legal executives), some of them brighter than the partners, some not so bright.
(ii) If the partner or the clerk speaks darkly about 'the mysteries of the law' and will not answer your questions about the principles of law involved or the latest development in the matter on which you have consulted him, drop him and the firm before it is too late. It means he does not know the answers or is sitting on the papers. If he is honest, he will say that he is over- worked and hasn't got round to your last letter. This is a good sign; suppress your irritation. Remember that you are deeply preoccupied with the matter but for him it is the thirtieth file in a queue of matters all of which are urgent. Do not go elsewhere but take comfort that you are on honest terms with your lawyer.
(iii) Do not be coy about the cost. Find out, if only roughly, what sort of bill you' will have to pay. Otherwise the shock, delayed sometimes by years, can be devastating, and nothing can be worse than lawsuits about the cost of a lawsuit.
(iv) Avoid the firms with a reputation for sharp conduct. Useful in a scrap, perhaps, but will the sharpness stop short of you?
(v) Some firms specialise—in divorces, crime, tax. Find out from a barrister friend or your brother in the City which these are. Keep your basic solicitor, but use the specialist when the speciality arises.
Finally there are the one-man or two-man firms which abound in every suburb and small town in the kingdom. If you have a small claim in the county court or some trouble before the magistrates or a tenancy problem, this is your solicitor. If you can, find one who is always appearing in one particular local court and is liked and trusted by everyone, especially the Bench. He is worth every guinea of the small fee he asks. And unless you are very grand and want to spend fifteen days and vast sums proving the enormity of your husband's cruelty, these are the firms to give really good service.
One final word of advice—people who go to law are usually in an unnatural state of mind. Their belligerency, their raging sense of injustice is larger than life (test this by trying to remember whether they ever felt the same degree of rage at an injustice done to someone else); they are, in a word, not themselves. If in moments of tran- quillity you notice that your solicitor is more bel- ligerent, more outraged than you are, look for the escape hatch. One fanatic leading another can be really dangerous and your case will be in the House of Lords before you realise it. But perhaps that is where you want to go.
Next week John Rowan Wilson will write on how to choose a consultant physician.
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