Our legal expertise is applied in conjunction with a pragmatic realism acquired over many years of practice in the Vale of York and against a culture of long term commitment, not short term self-interested gain. Most of our practitioners have been with the firm for many years and, in our experience, many of our clients value continuity of individual service very highly.
Whilst a large proportion of our clients live or work within the middle part of North Yorkshire we do advise and act for many people in other parts of Great Britain and indeed throughout the World. England and Wales comprise a single legal jurisdiction and we are qualified to act in domestic matters from anywhere between Berwick on Tweed to Penzance. We do not normally deal with foreign legal matters except in cases where the estate of a deceased person includes property overseas.
Although we do not approve of the practice, our regulatory bodies now allow solicitors to give or receive so-called ‘referral fees’. These are payments to or from third parties in consideration of the referral of client business. Examples of this practice include solicitors paying estate agents in return for recommendation of people buying and selling houses or receiving benefits from financial advisers as a bonus for referring clients perceived as needing their advice. Until quite recently such practices were outlawed as likely to compromise the strict independence that was always regarded as the hallmark of a solicitor’s professional duty. Although the rules in this area have been relaxed, we still hold to the view that payment or receipt of referral fees is not in the public interest and therefore we do not participate in the practice. We prefer to retain and expand our client base on the foundation of client satisfaction and personal recommendation not the payment of ‘bungs’ to third parties. Equally, we will recommend other professionals solely on the basis of our judgment of their ability and not as the result of any undue influence arising from monetary benefit.
