Results for Eatons Solicitors:
Eatons Solicitors in Bradford, Bingley, Yeadon & Leeds West Yorkshire:
It's very easy for any firm to write that they are large, competitive, friendly or experienced in the text of their website. These days with so many legal matters being resolved without the client ever having to step foot inside the actual solicitors office, most potential clients typically only see the firm's website as their face. Covid accelerated everyone into accepting that's how things can be done. But can you still get a feel for a firm without actually dropping by?
Most law firms will display bright web pages with well-crafted sales pitches surrounded by photos of people in suits all smiling and shaking hands. Is that all you have to go on when trying to determine which firm to use? Absolutely not. There are several other resources and ways of simply thinking about things which might help you spot genuine experience and positive qualities rather than those simply claimed by a firm's on their website.
This is a snippet from the website of Eatons Solicitors which brings us to our first point. Firms will try to express experience in many ways. A common one is to state the number of years the firm has existed. 150 years certainly sounds impressive. But there won't be a 150 year old guru sat behind a desk monitoring everything. You could end up with a 1 year qualified solicitors at a 200 year old firm or a 40 year veteran lawyer at a brand new law practice. We don't think the age of the branding should sway you.
Eatons don't use any slick wording tricks that we saw. For example, a firm might say it has '30 years of experience within the firm'. That could simply mean they have 10 members of staff with 3 years of experience each. So how can you tell whether the firm, or your individual solicitor, has a good level of experience?
The firm does have a staff profile page. But we also frequently recommend using The Law Society of England & Wales' website. It's a treasure trove of usable information to help you with your search for the right law firm. You can look up any firm registered with the organisation and see alternative trading names, contact details, languages spoken, all office addresses, and so on. Most importantly they typically list the areas of expertise and qualification date of every solicitor registered within the firm as well.
Eatons Solicitors have several solicitors registered with the Law Society. In fact, they seem to have solicitors who joined the profession across the last five decades such as partner David Butterfield who qualified in 1977, John Brown in 1982, Steven Gilbey in 1991, Joad Singh in 2007, Talat Manir in 2010, with Parminder Matharu jumping into the practice of law in the relatively recent 2017. We've been working with law firms for over 20 years and rarely have we seen such a wide collection of experience within one firm.
Of course the first thing people normally think of when researching a firm is to check their reviews on public boards such as Facebook, Google, Trustpilot and so on. Many firms have testimonials on their websites, but that's not what people want to see. The negative reviews are where you find out any themes showing a common issue. So what do the reviews of this firm look like?
"kept me well informed, replied to any of my emails"
"found their bill fair. Will be using again"
"kept me fully informed throughout the process"
Those are some snippets from the independent forums and overall they are positive. The negative comments seem to be mostly related to house purchases. It's important to note that most law firms that handle property matters do end up with a larger portion of negative feedback compared to solicitors that don't. It's common for some of the largest, most popular conveyancing firms in the country to have 2 or 3 star average ratings.
Property sales are the only area of law where we have seen people from the opposite side of the transaction leave bad feedback on the firm of the person buying or selling the property. You don't see that for any other case type such as a disgruntled divorcee complaining their spouse's firm won. So absolutely, for law firms at least you need to read the actual comments for context. Never compare average star ratings for legal services.
Eatons law firm has grown over the years merging with other brands. So a quick note on navigation is required. The official site is currently www.eatons-solicitors.co.uk with www.eatons-solicitors.com redirecting you there. They also seem to have bought other variants such as www.eatonssolicitors.co.uk which is actually much more helpful and security conscious than you might think.
Over the past decade there has been a massive upsurge of people sending their home deposit to a scammer. Sometimes it's just because they received a last minute official-looking email telling them the bank details have changed. So anything to help people not get misdirected or misled is a plus in our book. Domain names are only around £10-£15 a year, so we don't understand why so many property firms don't buy at least a few of the variants to avoid their clients getting tricked too easily.
That's a cut from a news article discussing the various brand names being merged. One thing to watch for when researching though is that Google can often return zero reviews for a firm if you miss out the name of the town an office is in. Also 'eatons solicitors leeds' will bring up different reviews to 'eatons bradford'. You can't just look up overall reviews.
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Eatons Solicitors it's best to visit the website (www.eatons-solicitors.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Eatons Solicitors Ltd may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.