Results for Graysons Solicitors:
Graysons Solicitors in Sheffield & Chesterfield:
When a firm has statements such as 'Established in 1925' on their front page - we are always a little cautious. Unfortunately we've seen many tenuous claims to long solicitor histories, including one firm who's claim was merely based on the fact they'd moved into an office space that a much older firm had originally occupied. (No, we're not making that up.) It's true that a 200-year-old firm might stick you with a 1-year-qualified solicitor and a 1-year-old firm could give you a 20-year-experienced solicitor to handle your case. So does Graysons have the staff to back up the intimation of experience?
Short answer - yes. But a good tip to remember is you can check up on the experience and specialisms of most solicitors across England & Wales using The Law Society website. For example, if you check out the page on Graysons you'll see they have solicitors who qualified in 1982, 1997, 1993, 2004 and so on with each often specialising in just one case type. That's obviously a good sign when compared with a firm with fairly new solicitors that take on practically anything.
"The firm's Lexcel accreditation - the Law Society's quality mark - is testimony to its excellent standards of management and quality of service. Graysons is recommended in the Legal 500 2019 for its work in the areas of family, personal injury and medical negligence."
This bit of boasting on the Graysons site certainly sounds good, but probably means nothing at all to members of the general public. That's okay. We don't recommend spending time finding out the background of each award/recommendation each law firm quotes. Just know that these two in particular are the most renown. Be careful of how some firms words things though, as some state they are part of organisations such as APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) as if it took some great feat to become a member. It doesn't. In our opinion, they'll let anyone in. But Lexcel and the Legal 500 are real, good things to boast about.
"We're a vibrant and experienced team of dedicated and caring legal professionals who act with tenacity, energy and respect. Our progressive culture gives you the assurance that you are in the best possible hands to receive tailored services and achieve desired results. We have the best legal talent and are completely in touch with today's discerning clients."
If that sounds like every other law firm's site you've been on today - don't hold that against them. We've been working with and writing articles on law for over 20 years now. Nearly every firm we work with has statements on their website about how they are 'traditional yet modern', 'fast yet not rushed' or 'friendly yet professional'. All of them. But that's why decided to write these new information pieces. To provide you with information you might not have thought to look for.
For example, you may not know that Graysons' solicitors get asked for their opinions on upcoming issues such as in this news article about property prices being affected by new train projects. They take part in charity work such as Will Aid. They've also raised funds for a cancer charity and sponsored a local cultural event called Art In The Gardens allowing new and established artists to showcase their work.
We always promote the concept of law firms provide free basic advice on their websites. Often people have a few initial questions about an issue that could be answered by a well-written FAQs section. This can immeasurably help people who might be being put off making a claim or contesting a will based on nonsense advice they've received from strangers on Facebook. Calling a solicitor to ask questions when you think you might be in the wrong is extremely daunting. If people can read through a few basics beforehand - we will always give a huge thumbs up to that firm.
If you go to the News section of the Graysons website, it really is just news and articles that only people in the legal industry would probably be interested in. They've even got a few self-promoting articles in their as well with titles such as 'Do I have a claim to my partner's pension now that we are separated?', 'Have you had a road traffic accident? Make your claim now!' and 'An excellent weekend at Art in the Gardens Sheffield'.
But there is an Advice and Resources section with topics including 'Why You Should Avoid DIY Divorces', 'Unmarried Fathers' Rights', 'Medical Negligence Claims – Frequently Asked Questions' and 'How Leaving Money To Charity Can Also Cut Your Inheritance Tax Bill'. This is great to see and we hope this section expands over time. So what are other people saying about the firm:
• "it went very well; I always had timely responses to emails. The delays I experienced in the process were as a result of issues further up the chain"
• "They were very efficient, polite and thorough in their handling of the sale - especially when they were dealing with the buyers solicitor who seemed slow and unresponsive."
• "kept me up to date with everything and responded to all my emails within an hour of me sending one"
• "Very helpful & gave good advice on initial enquiry"
• "They were very efficient, polite and thorough in their handling of the sale - especially when they were dealing with the buyers solicitor who seemed slow and unresponsive."
• "kept me up to date with everything and responded to all my emails within an hour of me sending one"
• "Very helpful & gave good advice on initial enquiry"
Those are a few snippets from public reviews on Google, Trustpilot, Yell.com, etc. It was strange on occasions though, because all the good reviews on Google sounded very professional with high praise, no spelling mistakes, no excessive capitalisations, no 'grammatical nuances' or anything you'd expect to see amongst dozens of public produced reviews. Often that means they are fake - i.e. the firm have placed the reviews themselves or paid someone else to do it for them. (Search "buy google reviews" and you'll see thousands of companies offering the service to do just that.) However - and that's a big 'however' - each of those reviews are from people that clearly have long-term accounts on the respective review forums with several or even dozens of other reviews already having been made about other companies. So we would have to say that the good reviews at least seem wholly genuine.
What about the bad reviews? One thing we've commented on before is to be careful when checking out ratings/reviews on any law firm that covers conveyancing. You must, must, must read the reviews themselves rather than just flicking through the star ratings. The example we often give is the huge conveyancing firm Countrywide Conveyancing who have more than 300+ reviews on Google with a 2.2 out of 5 rating. They are actually a very good firm. The problem with buying or selling property is that many things are out of the hands of your solicitor such as land searches, chains, mortgages, the other party's mind-changing and so on. But it's your solicitor that often gets blamed if something goes wrong. Although we did see one bad rating for Graysons where the user gave the reason as "lift wasn't working today". No seriously, we're not making that up. It's in the Google Reviews about 10 from the bottom.
That's why we always recommend reading the reviews rather than relying on star ratings because we've honestly seen a criminal law specialist be given a one star rating for refusing to take on someone's divorce case.
"We are proud of the fact that a large number of our clients come to us through personal recommendation."
A few notes on navigation because, whilst we link to the main www.graysons.co.uk website above, www.graysons.com is owned by someone else. The typical mis-spellings of www.grayson.co.uk and www.grayson.com are completely different companies. We didn't check other common errors such as greysons, graysonssolicitors or hyphenated versions because there are just too many. But as we're dealing with property matters, we absolutely recommend bookmarking the correct site once you know you're on it just to be sure. We are still seeing stories of people falling for bank detail scams during property sales. If you ever get a call from someone saying they're from the firm you are using but you don't recognise the person - ask to speak to someone you know there before giving over personal information or at least hang up and dial the phone number listed on the papers you have from the firm.
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Graysons Solicitors it's best to visit the website (www.graysons.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Graysons 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.