Results for Wilford Smith Solicitors:
Wilford Smith Solicitors in Sheffield (Meadowhall) & Rotherham - WS Strategic Ltd:
Todays article focuses on Wilford Smith solicitors. A firm covering personal and business matters with local offices in Sheffield and Rotherham. They are a good example to use in order to provide insights and help into ways people can research law firms and ensure they get one that matches what they are looking for. First, a quote from their website:
If you've already been through a dozen law firm website's today, you'll maybe have noticed many of them use similar words such as 'modern', 'efficient', 'friendly', and so on. While these are obviously good things to describe your firm, there is no-one claiming the opposite (i.e. that they are an 'outdated', 'inefficient', and 'unfriendly' firm). Which makes these statements almost useless for a consumer trying to tell the firms apart. So what can you do?
Normally on a firm's site you'll see a statement such as this. This one from the Wilford Smith site is very clear, indicating that they have been serving clients for over 40 years. However other companies may use clever wording to try and make their claims seem bigger than they are. For example, if you see a firm stating they have '40 years experience within the firm' or '40 years combined experience' that means they have added up all the years experience between their staff. So they could have 10x staff members with only 4 years of experience each.
This is very different from firms that claim ancient heritages such as 'established in 1881'. Those are merely claims about the firm's branding having existed for a really long time. Clearly there is not a 200-year-old solicitor sitting behind the desk. We think it's quite a pointless claim which Wilford Smith and many others thankfully do not make. Because you could get a 1-year newbie solicitor from a 200-year-old firm and a 40-year veteran lawyer from a 1-year old legal practice.
The first point of call for most people and one of the best ways to get a better sense about whether a firm does 'excel' at something is to check feedback from previous clients. Most legal professionals will provide a testimonials page and this firm does so here.
But according to our poll a few years back 92% of people preferred public review boards such as Google, Trustpilot, Yelp, Yell, Facebook, etc. compared to testimonials provided by the company themselves. This was true for all industries, not just law.
"they kept me informed throughout, it was a very frustrating process"
"helped make the experience as smooth as it could be"
"Constantly updating us, providing advice, and explaining procedures"
The majority of comments about this firm on the independent forums were positive like these few snippets quoted above. This is unusual though because the firm deals with Conveyancing. For example: one of the largest Conveyancing firms in the UK (My Home Move) have a current rating of 3.1 stars out of 500+ reviews on Google. This is because the majority of people involved in a property transaction experience problems, delays, and general misery. So for Wilford Smith to have such a high positive profile on review sites is very encouraging.
On that topic we should cover some notes about navigation. To start with, if you want to see reviews about a firm on Google these days you have to enter the office location of the firm as well as their name. For example 'wilford smith solicitors sheffield' brings up totally different reviews to 'wilford smith rotherham'. Also if you see the name WS Strategic Ltd, that is the official name of the firm listed with Companies House. You will also have to look up that name if researching the firm on The Law Society website. 'Wilford Smith & Co' simply seems to be an older name still dotted around, not a different practice.
The official website we link to above is www.wilfordsmith.com and at the time of writing www.wilfordsmith.co.uk did not redirect you there. Please note the firm is not called 'wilford and smith' and if you are ever dealing with a firm with an 'and' in the middle - you cannot have ampersands in web addresses such as www.wilford&smith.com
This is all important because law firms that deal with property matters have been targeted by fraudsters for many years now. Or more precisely, their clients have. Many home buyers have handed their entire house deposit to a scammer sometimes merely because they received an official-looking email saying the bank details for payment had changed. Keep aware of which site you are on and never discuss payment details via email.
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Wilford Smith Solicitors it's best to visit the website (www.wilfordsmith.com) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Wilford Smith may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.