Results for Thomas and Thomas Solicitors Ltd:
Thomas and Thomas Solicitors Ltd in Maesteg, Bridgend & Port Talbot:
It can be very confusing trying to navigate the world of 'marketing jargon'. If you've already visited a dozen law firm websites today looking for one that peak's your interest, you'll have been bombarded with words such as 'friendly', 'expert', and 'modern'. They all sound great descriptions, but as there are no firms claiming to be 'unfriendly', 'newbies', or 'out of date' - such terms don't really help you distinguish one firm from another.
Beyond that, you have firms claiming to be 'local' which sounds great. But a 'large firm' can also sound like it has benefits too. Then you get companies claiming to be 'a large firm with a small firm feel'. How on earth can you decide which firm is right for you? There are some resources you can use and we'll use the following firm's website as an example:
Being in Wales this firm will undoubtedly have no choice in some of its perceptions. No matter how many offices it gets, most businesses in Wales tend to have a local feel to them. The same for anything in Scotland above the Edinburgh/Glasgow line. They do use some of the wording we mentioned before, such as:
Most firms will claim the same. However this is something you can actually check up on if the firm is registered with their Law Society. We have often praised The Law Society of England & Wales for their excellent user resources. For any firm or individual solicitor you can look up whether they are registered along with any other trading names, alternative contact details, and so on.
But more importantly you can look up the qualification dates and areas of law each individual solicitor specialises in. This can be incredibly useful in sifting out those with real experience and real specialism versus those attempting a jack-of-all-trades approach to law. For this firm you'll see they have lawyers Helen Jones and Melissa Thomas who both qualified in 2005, as well as newer members to the legal profession such as Gemma O'Callaghan who qualified in the relatively recent 2016. Certainly those are dates for which the firm can reasonably claim both 'experience' and 'fresh ideas'.
One thing to watch for are firms that imply experience rather than actually having any. This is done using marketing phrases such as '20 years experience within the firm' which could be 10 staff members each with 2 years of experience added up. Or 'founded in 1920' which makes the firm sound as though they have experience, but the solicitor you get could have qualified 6 months ago. The age of a firm is irrelevant.
Thomas & Thomas did not make any such misleading claims as far as we saw on their site. But for their claim of being 'friendly and professional' most people will turn to prior client comments for evidence of that. The firm does have testimonials on their website. Here are some snippets:
"Alun and his team went out of their way"
"They are professional."
However in a poll we ran a few years back only 8% of people voted that they trusted company provided testimonials. Most preferred the public boards such as Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, etc. So what are they saying?
"Young friendly staff keen and pleasant"
"worked tirelessly to ensure that the purchase didn't fall through"
Most independent forums were positive but had a high number of reviews relating to house purchasing. That's actually a bigger deal than you might think. Conveyancing firms normally have the lowest ratings out of legal services on the web. That's because hardly anyone is ever happy with how long it takes and there are always problems (most of which are outside the solicitor's control but still they get the blame). We've even seen people from the other side of the transaction leaving negative reviews on the buyer/seller's solicitors which never happens in other areas of law such as employment or personal injury. So for a firm to have consistent 4+ star ratings in the real estate industry is unusual.
Be aware that Google has changed how it displays reviews and nowadays you sometimes have to enter the location to see any reviews at all. For example 'thomas and thomas solicitors port talbot' will bring up different reviews to another office name while entering no office location at all can end up with you being shown zero reviews.
Another quick note on navigation. The official website we link to above is www.thomasandthomassolicitors.co.uk which, although helpfully being the firm's full name, it's a long one to remember or type in without any mistakes. Remember that ampersands can't be used in web addresses so www.thomas&thomassolicitors.co.uk will bring up an error or redirect you elsewhere depending on your browser. The .com and other variants such as www.thomasandthomas.co.uk also do not bring the correct firm up.
This is hugely important because the firm deals with property matters which has been the target of huge scams for more than a decade now. People have transferred their entire house deposit to fraudsters after receiving an official-looking email saying the payment details have changed. So making sure you are on the correct site is imperative and of course - never discuss payment details via email.
Rate this article:
Currently rated 4.2 from 12 votes*
General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Thomas and Thomas Solicitors Ltd it's best to visit the website (www.thomasandthomassolicitors.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Thomas & Thomas 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.