Michael Leighton Jones: Info
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Michael Leighton Jones Solicitors in Bargoed & Tredomen, Wales: Review
If you've already gone through dozens of law websites today looking for the best firm for your case, you've probably noticed a lot of them use the same sort of 'sales pitch' language. Some even use identical images of people in suits smiling and shaking hands.
Here at 1to1Legal we've been reviewing legal companies for over twenty years and have written hundreds of articles on them and the subject of law marketing. So hopefully in this article we'll be able to point out some differences you can look for between the lines and some resources you might not be aware of to help when you're making your selection.
Certainly most firms will claim a range of qualities such as being 'modern', 'friendly', and 'efficient'. They are good words. But to be honest, it's not as if any law firm is ever going to claim being the opposite (i.e. 'living in the past', 'unfriendly', and 'inefficient'). So if these sorts of claims can't help distinguish between the firms. What can you use?
One thing people are often wary of are boasts about various years of experience. Some firms even make statements such as 'established in 1881' as if that will make people think they are better than a firm started up in 2020. Sadly though, it often does promote that idea and the legal industry is one of the last such places this discrimination exists. New tech companies, car makers, or even a new local bakery would never be thought of as worse for not being 200 year's old. Plus, how old the building or the brand name is has no bearing on the years of experience your solicitor may have. A 200 year old firm could still stick you with a 1-year qualified lawyer.
One of the best resources for estimating the experience levels of the actual solicitors at a firm is their local law society. MLJ Solicitors are registered with The Law Society of England & Wales which is great because they are the best out of all such organisation websites we've seen. They provide a wealth of user-side data including all office locations, other trading names used, languages spoken, as well as the qualification dates of the legal staff.
If you check out the page for this firm you'll see range of qualification dates throughout four of the last five decades. This includes the partners Hugh Thomas (qualified as a solicitor in 1977) and Michael Jones (qualified in 1985). Others include Peter FitzGerald who joined the UK legal system in 1996, right up to Sarah Price in 2003. A good mix of ages, experience, and case focus.
That's another huge thing to watch for when choosing a firm. There will always be 'specialist' firms that target a single case type such as Motoring Offences or Divorce. However it would still be fair to call this firm a group of 'specialists' as well. Alongside the qualification dates for the solicitors on the law society website, you'll see a tab marked Areas of Practice. This tells you what each solicitor works on.
If you flick through each of the staff at MLJ you'll see some focus on Personal Injury, others on Property Matters, and others on things like Family Law. This is very different to a firm that offers a wide range of case types handled, but ALL of their solicitors try to handle ALL the different types of cases. Whilst we try not to offer direct legal advice on our site, it is probably very fair (almost obvious actually) to comment that a solicitor that works in a small niche area of law may have more experience and be better kept up-to-date about the legal changes for those types of cases.
"Very accommodating and quick to respond"
"easy to deal with when selling my mums house"
"got it done quickly and in time not to pay stamp duty"
These snippets are from the public review boards. The most common being Google, Trustpilot, Yell.com, Facebook, Yelp, etc. The majority are positive and most related to property matters. That's very common though. When you are flicking through law firm reviews remember that people are far less likely to share their feelings about their messy divorce than they are about the restaurant they just ate at. So if there are very few or even zero reviews for a firm - that shouldn't be taken as a negative sign.
It's a good idea to read comments when it comes to legal service providers as well rather than just checking star ratings. For example, we did see one negative review about this firm on Google where the person gave one star and said simply that it was bad customer service. Comments like that aren't very helpful at all. We've seen people leave negative reviews for a Criminal Law firm refusing to take a Personal Injury case. We've seen bad ratings for firms that had to close over the Covid pandemic. Useful context for negative reviews should be used to check if there is a theme. For Michael Leighton Jones we didn't see any such negative 'themes'
A quick note on navigation as the name of the firm is quite long. The official website is the full www.michaelleightonjones.com but at the moment the full site also pops up on www.michaelleightonjones.co.uk as well. There is a firm call 'MLJ Legal Ltd' based in Hull, but at the moment searches including MLJ acronyms also brought up the michaelleightonjones website.
Because the firm deals with conveyancing matters we would recommend bookmarking the site or using a search to make sure you get back safely. Alot of problems such as 'phishing' can happen if you type the wrong domain name into a web browser. There are also many scams right now involving house deposits. Scammers email clients saying they are the solicitor and telling them the bank details for payment have changed. For some reason, those clients go right ahead and send tens of thousands of pounds to the fraudsters without checking with the solicitor if that email was genuine.
For Personal Injury and Property matters we would expect every single solicitor in the UK to offer free consultations. However this offer seems to be for Michael Leighton Jones Solicitors' whole case range. That's a bigger deal than you might think. There are still plenty of firms out there that will charge a consultation fee or even full hourly rates for the first meeting.
General Notes: Usually if Legal Aid is possible we've mentioned it above, but you can always ask. We haven't looked in depth at their recruitment program so are unaware of any job vacancies available. For a career with Michael Leighton Jones it's best to visit the website (www.michaelleightonjones.com), check opening hours, and find the correct phone/email contact details. Simply emailing a CV to reception looks lazy. Each law firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site, usually at the bottom of each page.
This Michael Leighton Jones article is rated
4.2 / 5 based on 16 reviews. †
(Voting has been paused for this page.)
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