Results for Walker Foster Solicitors:
Walker Foster Ltd Solicitors in Skipton, Barnoldswick, Silsden, Settle, Ilkley, Northallerton & Harrogate:
With tens of thousands of solicitors and legal practices operating across the UK, finding the best fit for your specific case can be challenging. Consumers often need to consider factors such as location, areas of expertise, reputation, and pricing before deciding whether to just pick up the phone. But taking time to research and compare firms can help ensure you find legal support suited to your circumstances. It can feel overwhelming though.
If you've already worked your way through several law firm websites today, hopefully the information below will do more than simply tell you about this particular practice. Our aim is also to point you towards some useful resources and identify a few shortcuts that can help you find the information you need more quickly when comparing legal providers. Naturally, most people begin their research on a firm's own website. So how do Walker Foster describe themselves?
It's very common for firms to state their founding date. It can immediately give the impression of a well-established firm with many years of experience. However, that is something to watch out for as not all firms state it clearly like this. In these days of marketing jargon, some firms will state "with 40 years of combined experience" or "50 years of experience within the firm". That doesn't mean there are any solicitors with 40-50 years of experience. It could mean there are 10 staff members each with 4-5 years of experience. Of course, having an old founding does not necessarily mean your actual solicitor will have decades of experience. There are 1-year qualified solicitors working at 40-year old firms and 40-year qualified solicitors working at 1-year old firms. So what else can you use to check the experience of any legal company?
Walker Foster does have a "Meet the Team" page on their site which lists some information about each staff members. They also provide direct contact details for each. That's a big positive in our opinion and rarer than you might think. Not all firms provide any information about their staff though. Luckily, if you live in England or Wales, there's a great independent way of finding out these details. The Law Society of England & Wales has an amazing site rivalling anything their counterpart organisations in Scotland or Northern Ireland currently offer. (That's genuine praise considering we're a old Scottish company.)
The Law Society provides consumers with detailed information about each company. If you look up the page for a firm, you'll be shown contact details, alternative trading names, office locations, plus the areas of expertise and qualification dates of every registered solicitor within the firm. For example, for this firm they show staff with qualifications spanning the past four decades including Keith Hardington who qualified in 1995, Maxine Heppenstall in 2002, Danielle Harps in 2015, right up to Lee Kirby who joined the profession in 2022. That's surely a good selection of seasoned heads with fresh eyes? You can do this for any firm registered with the organisation.
The Law Society is also an organisation which issues accreditations for a range of case types and levels. It's something to watch for on law firm's websites and easily checkable. If a firm has one, they will usually mention it and display the related stamp as well. These can be a better tell-tale sign of experience and quality than a firm stating it is "award-winning". If you see a firm say they are "award-winning" with no reference to what that award was for, then for all you know it was for best logo design - not their expertise in legal matters. If their award is recent or related to the practice of law then they will typically state such openly.
Of course, whenever someone is looking up a company or service online the first thing they typically do is search for reviews. Quite often companies will list "testimonials" on their own website, but a poll we ran last year came back that less than 9% of people trusted company provided reviews. So, what are people saying on the independent boards such as Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, etc?
"We appreciated her prompt replies to any of our queries"
"very kind, supportive and efficient"
"kept up to date at all stages of the process"
These snippets are clearly positive. But we always recommend making sure to read the comments. Never trust just the star ratings on their own. We've seen one divorce lawyer with a review about their bad pizza, and a criminal law firm which was left 0 stars for refusing to take on someone's accident claim. Please note though, when looking reviews up on Google they have made some changes lately. You can't see reviews of the company as a whole anymore. You need to search for reviews on each individual office - e.g. 'walker foster skipton'.
In our experience of working with law firms for over 25 years, there were quite a few things which we noted about this firm's site. Such as having example prices publicly displayed on their website rather than just saying to call for a quote. That too is rarer than you might expect. They also offer a range of downloadable information leaflets which seems a nice touch too. Little things like this are best to note rather than any wonderful sales language used. But most important is to reserve full judgement until you actually speak to one of the firm's solicitors.
A quick note on navigation. The official site is www.walkerfoster.com and currently www.walkerfoster.co.uk redirects you there as well. The .com version is https-secure for submitting your personal details on their contact form. Things like this are important to note because you need to be extra vigilant these days, especially for property matters such as buying and selling your home. Ensure you are on the correct website. Ensure you're talking to or emailing a genuine staff member. Far too many people have handed their entire house deposit to fraudsters. Sometimes after just one official-looking email pretending to be from their conveyancer.
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General Notes: Each legal company's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site. Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Walker Foster Solicitors it's best to visit the website (www.walkerfoster.com) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. When evaluating any firm, alternating or adding words such as Walker Foster Ltd may bring up extra background/reviews.