About us
There are many good solicitors - the trick is finding one
Solicitor.info is an independent rating website with the goal of finding you the best solicitor by collecting and displaying reviews and opinions directly from you, the people that instruct them. Founder David Sprake is a senior lecturer and programme leader for renewable energy at Wrexham Glyndwr University.
In 2002, after receiving poor legal service, David came up with the idea of a "trip adviser" for solicitors and so registered the name "solicitor.info" and launched the website in 2007. Since then the website has grown in strength and has had nearly 3 million hits and over 16,000 reviews as well as acquiring an award in 2011 for being one of the top ten .info websites in the world. David is currently persuing a PhD in clean energy.
Not all solicitors are the same
In its first six months of operation (from 6th October 2010 to 31st March 2011 the legal ombudsman who deals with complaints about solicitors was contacted 38,155 times and 3,768 cases where opened. Additionally the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) prosecute, strike off or close down many solicitors on a weekly basis. While these departments do a good job in regulating solicitors you might not want to instruct, solicitor.info aims to highlight firms you will want to represent you.
Solicitor.info tries to balance the freedom of speech of reviewers with the fact that a false review may unfairly damage a solicitor’s reputation. We try to combine these two conflicting forces in a workable legal format that allows clients to find great solicitors, and great solicitors to find clients.
Solicitor.info believe finding a good solicitor can be difficult without any prior knowledge or recommendations - and that’s something you just don’t need to worry about when you are in a situation that itself may well be stressful and or upsetting.
The Truth will come out…
Reviews come from real people just like you.
You can use this website in two ways
To find a good solicitor
Use the search facility to find solicitors in your area that have been reviewed by previous clients, doing this will give you a better way of making an informed choice thanks to the help and insight offered by clients who have left reviews.If you use this free service please come back and leave a review yourself to help others make an informed choice - did they match the existing reviews and your expectations?
To leave a review
If you have used a solicitor in the past you can rate the service you received from your solicitor which takes just a couple of minutes. By giving an honest opinion of the service you received, you can either thank a solicitor that has proved to be invaluable or leave feedback of how their service could be improved. You will also be helping other people to decide whether your solicitor is right for them. You have the option to leave the review anonymously but putting your name to it, there is more weight and legitimacy.
What are verified reviews?
Verified reviews are indicated on our site by gold stars - these reviews have come from a proven genuine client of the solicitor
Non-verified reviews can be written anonymously but are still audited to ensure they indicate a truthful experience of the solicitor
Solicitor.info complies with the Legal Services Panel standards for comparison websites
"This site has assessed itself against the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s standards for comparison websites, and considers that it complies with those standards. The standards reflect best practice in areas such as accessibility, independence, choice, accuracy, use of personal information and complaints handling. Please note that the website has not been independently assessed to check compliance. For more information on the standards visit the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s website"
Questions you may have about Solicitor.info
1) Does a reviewed solicitor on solicitor.info have access to edit / remove the reviews people post about them?
No.
2) There is a solicitor listed with many good reviews that I have not had such a great experience with?
Leave an honest review - the truth will out as more people leave reviews.
3) If I leave an anonymous review - will anyone be ever able to trace me?
As long as you don’t add anything in your review that will identify yourself. Please note if someone pursues a court order, a judge may order an IP (computer) address of a reviewers internet connection is traced, but this may be not conclusive proof of identity; it may be an internet cafe etc. If police are investigating a crime, i.e defamation, they may request and be given all details we have on the postings in question.
4) Where I do give my name with a bad review, can a solicitor prosecute me for what I say?
The Universal declaration of Human Rights Article 19 (freedom of expression) states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
What about New Zealand libel/ deformation Law? This area of law is currently changing. If your review is 100% provable fact and a matter of opinion in the public interest this is a defence against deformation, however this is not guaranteed and if in doubt legal advice should be sought. Please note we trust reviewers to post genuine and truthful reviews. If a review is made that is untrue, un-factual or just plain malicious this will be doing a disservice to this website set up to help you, and all the genuine reviews on it.
5) What if my solicitor isn’t listed?
Please contact us with the details of your solicitor.
6) Does solicitor.info edit / remove reviews?
No. However, if we are notified a review is defamatory or against our terms of use to protect solicitor.info from deformation claims and a solicitor from an inaccurate review we remove upon request, however we keep score and display where a review has been removed so that over time, a balanced picture will emerge. We will also remove a solicitor completely from the website (see below)
7) Do we remove solicitors completely from solicitor.info?
Yes. If a solicitor asks us to remove their listing from the website we will. If a solicitor asks us to remove all bad reviews whilst keeping good ones we will also suggest they are removed completely. We believe solicitor.info is about finding you a solicitor that is confident enough to let their clients rate them. We will see the solicitors that choose to remove themselves and the ones happy to remain- Darwinian natural selection?
8) Some of the reviews look too good to be true and made up?
We have no way of knowing if a review is genuine. If a solicitor where to add great made up reviews about themselves they are breaking the law- and would you trust them? A solicitor who would do this is playing a dangerous game; as time goes on, the people who instructed them to look after their legal services based on good reviews, will come back and leave reviews themselves.
9) How is solicitor.info funded?
Solicitor.info is funded by advertising on various pages of our website. Individual solicitors also pay for enhanced listings and where viewers ask a legal question or for specific legal advice we pass on this information to various trusted solicitors who may give us a referral fee if any work arises from the enquiry.
10) Can a Solicitor add reviews that clients have left on their own client feedback forms?
Yes - We encourage solicitors to add their customer feedback from their client feedback forms. This must be word for word quotes and not made up; otherwise the solicitor is breaking the law. If you suspect this not to be the case- please email us with details or leave a response.
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