Results for Frazer Coogans Ltd:
Frazer Coogans Ltd - Solicitors in Ayr, Prestwick & Glasgow:
Whilst we work very hard to find as many alternative options for people to help with legal matters, sometimes you do just need a regular high street law firm. There are many advantages to using alternatives such as Direct Access barristers which can save considerable time and money depending on the case you need representing in court. Alternative Dispute Resolution or Mediation companies can be fantastic too for hopefully taking the inherent confrontational aggressiveness out of a Divorce matter.
With so many high street solicitors to choose from though, how do we at 1to1Legal decide which firms to include in our search database and which to skip over? Below are some criteria and resources we use. Of course, if a firm is included in our database then it means we think very highly of them. So if the following article seems a little bias - that doesn't mean we haven't put Frazer Coogans through the regular checks first before coming to our conclusion that they're a decent group of people.
"Frazer Coogans Solicitors was originally established in Ayr in 1985."
If you've read any of our other articles, you'll probably have seen at least one rant about 'established in ...' dates when it comes to law firms. Unlike tech companies, food outlets, streaming services, or practically any company these days where the newer they are the more popular they seem to get - the legal industry still seems to push that older is better. Some claiming hundreds of years of history behind them. (Very, very, tenuously worked out in most cases.)
Seeing a founding date of 1985 would therefore seem ancient on a clothing brand. But on a law website it can look to some as almost brand new. We've said it before but it's worth saying again - in our opinion 'established in ...' dates absolutely do not matter. You can get a 1-year novice from a 200-year old firm. You can obtain a 40-year guru lawyer from a 1-year old firm. The claim following this one on the Frazer Coogan website is a little stronger though, stating that the current Senior Director (Norman Geddes) has:
"... led Frazer Coogans into rapid expansion to be one of the leading firms in the West Coast of Scotland."
It's hugely common for companies to claim they are 'one of the leading' in something. It's one of those marketing jargon phrases that sounds great but essentially could be said by any firm. 'One of' doesn't distinguish how many is included in that group (compared to clearer statements such as 'top 10' might do). 'Leading' also sounds great but of itself doesn't actually provide any definition of what area, stats, or other measurable metrics they are 'leading' in.
If you see a firm stating they are 'one of the leading' without any further information to back up what that means - or if the firm claims to be 'award-winning' but has no information about what awards they have won - then we recommend you ignore the statement completely. So, does Frazer Coogans Solicitors provide clarification?
"Recent figures issued by the Land Register of Scotland confirm Frazer Coogans to be the leading firm of solicitors in the South West of Scotland by number of properties registered in 2017."
Yes they do. There are also many positive things to pick out between the lines which many consumers could probably miss. We've been reviewing law firms for over 20 years now. That's thousands of websites and sales text we've sifted through. This statement:
"Frazer Coogans encourage staff to gain their full potential"
at the very end of their About Us page might also sound like a throwaway bit of sales jargon. But when you start reading through more resources and even just the pages on their site - they really do come across as an unusually encouraging firm when it comes to their staff. For example on the page containing staff profiles one of their most recently qualified members is Anoop who started with the firm back in 2013 as a legal assistant. He went on to do a law degree whilst working there, did his solicitor training there, and is now a fully qualified solicitor there.
At 1to1Legal we also have a staff member who went through law school whilst working here, so we're very aware there does need to be a fair bit of flexibility and a desire to encourage a staff member's studies to make that situation work.
Unfortunately, the Law Society for Scotland's website is nowhere near as good as it's English/Welsh counterpart when it comes to user side data. The Law Society of England & Wales' website is an excellent resource for people in those areas. They provide alternate contact details, other trading names, languages spoking, qualification dates of all solicitors within the firm, and more. The LawScot site only provides search results with a clickable 'view' button for the basic bits of info.
"The office has full disabled access."
Again, this may sound like a regular statement but you'd be surprised how many firms in older buildings are not able to say this. Frazer Coogans Ltd is also registered to work with Legal Aid which again may sound like something most solicitors do, but they really don't. Since the 90s the government has been stripping Legal Aid massively so that these days very few people qualify for help and the lawyers working under legal aid are paid a fraction of what they would normally charge for their services. Therefore any firm offering to help under Legal Aid gets a huge stack of brownie points from us.
"In May 2015, Frazer Coogans opened up their Prestwick branch, acquiring the former firm of Lawson Russell Solicitors."
Having worked with law firms for over two decades now and seen many of them merge or buy out other firms, 9 times out of 10 (guesstimating) this has proven hugely beneficial when compared to simply opening up another office from scratch. But enough about what we think, what are previous clients saying about the firm?
"Frazer Coogans always gave us accurate, informative and helpful information for us to make decisions"
"Would definitely use them when we buy our next house"
"All completed in time to avoid any extra interest or fees. Would definitely use again"
"Dealt with everything professionally and nothing was too much hassle"
"Would definitely use them when we buy our next house"
"All completed in time to avoid any extra interest or fees. Would definitely use again"
"Dealt with everything professionally and nothing was too much hassle"
These are snippets from the firm's own website, more commonly referred to as 'testimonials' rather than 'reviews' because typically the firms only post the positive comments on their sites. That's probably why independent review forums such as Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, Yell.com, and so on are very popular and frequently used as the first port of call when researching whether to use a particular service provider.
"went the extra mile to extract all the information I needed for piece of mind"
"I have found their staff and service to be friendly, considered, efficient, attentive and informative"
"we have had to sell our house remotely. Always kept us informed. Freindly [sic] and reliable service"
"had quite a long and protracted property purchase due to issues outside of Frazer Coogans control, but they didn't loose interest and kept us updated at every step"
"I have found their staff and service to be friendly, considered, efficient, attentive and informative"
"we have had to sell our house remotely. Always kept us informed. Freindly [sic] and reliable service"
"had quite a long and protracted property purchase due to issues outside of Frazer Coogans control, but they didn't loose interest and kept us updated at every step"
The third party boards also have a considerable number of positive reviews about this firm. However at the time of writing they only have a 3.9 star rating on Google. That doesn't look good, but this is why we always recommend you actually read the negative comments rather than just relying on star ratings.
If you look at the last quoted positive review above you'll see that there were problems with the house sale but the client did not lay all their frustrations on their solicitor. Sadly, that is very rare. Even when things are completely outside the control of the solicitor, clients will often leave negative comments on review boards. Sometimes even DURING the house purchase as if it will somehow hurry their solicitor up. That's why the majority of law firms that deal with conveyancing and related property matters will most likely have a big chunk of negative reviews. The largest property firm in the UK just now currently has over 1500+ reviews on Google and a rating of just over two stars. It's certainly something to bear in mind.
"Norman Geddes has been in practice since 1976"
"Anoop Christi ... qualified as a Solicitor in 2020"
"Anoop Christi ... qualified as a Solicitor in 2020"
That's the two ends of the experience bookshelf from what we could see, making a range of five decades worth of experience - but alongside some fresh legs too. We would imagine that having a mix of ages, genders, and experience levels is an enviable position for any company that deals with direct client services.
A quick note on navigation. Because we're dealing with property matters is increasingly important to ensure you are using the correct websites and communication options. The official name of the firm is Frazer Coogans Ltd but the usual variations such as 'frazer coogan's solicitors', 'fraser coogans ltd', 'frazer coogans ayr', etc. all brought up the correct company for us at the top of search results. Watch out for Google ads though as some keyword matching ads did pop up for us on some of the mis-spellings.
The official site we link to above is www.frazercoogans.co.uk but www.frazercoogans.com does not redirect you there. The most common typo we'd expect of www.frasercoogans.co.uk / .com also does not seemed to be owned by the firm either. This is important to note due to the huge number of people getting scammed when buying a home. For some reason, thousands of people have handed over their entire house deposit to fraudsters simply because they received an email telling them the bank payment details had changed. Making sure you're on the correct website to avoid phishing and only discussing payment arrangements over the phone through the official contact channels - is massively important. One last clipping from the firm's website:
"Free initial consultation"
This actually is becoming more common amongst UK law firms which is great, but there still are firms out there that will charge for a proper discussion about your case when it relates to Family or Criminal Law. For Personal Injury matters you should never have to pay anything up front or during the case at all.
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Currently rated 4.5 from 24 votes*
General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Frazer Coogans Ltd it's best to visit the website (www.frazercoogans.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Frazer Coogans Solicitors may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.