How do you choose your litigator (i.e. why instruct me)?

You need a litigator.  You want urgent advice that you can afford.  You have your pick of anyone.  Why choose a single practitioner firm in Cornwall?

Honestly, you don’t have to.  It would be a boring article if I stopped there though, wouldn’t it?

I could promise to be “tenacious”, “robust”, “ferocious”, like others do, or whatever description you think you want to hear about your choice of litigation solicitor.  All of that is white noise. 

So what should you look for in a litigator? 

The relationship you have with your litigation solicitor is an important one and thought should go into it.  You wouldn’t settle on the first car you viewed without test driving a few to check you get on, would you?  The same goes for your lawyer.  You might be working together for months (or years), trusting them at possibly the most stressful or worrying time of your life.  Depend upon it – there will be frustrations, hard to hear realities and tough decisions.  Who do you want to see you through it?  A flashy lawyer who you think ‘matches up’ to the opponent or someone you can ride out that journey with and trust to put you first? 

It should go without saying that your chosen lawyer will be available for you when you need them, get back to you promptly, tell you what you need to know in a clear way and always do their best to protect and guide you.  You should also be confident they know what they’re doing.

So you should go to a big firm then?  Maybe.  Big firms tend to have a large team of lawyers at all levels at a range of prices.  However, you might find that the partner you first speak to, who you gel with really well, isn’t the person who does your work and that you’re very quickly shunted over to a significantly less experienced lawyer for the remainder of your work.  

If that works for you, great.  If you liked the pedigree of having a partner represent you, you may find the service you receive from a junior team member isn’t as ‘gold standard’ as you were hoping for that premium price.  Alternatively, with popularity sometimes comes inability to take on your work, leaving you out in the cold at the very worst of times.

This is where small firms come in.  They may not be well known to opponents, so may not command respect from larger firms.  However, there is significant value in choosing a smaller firm:

• There are no huge overheads on premises, staff and various other ‘trimmings’, so prices can be kept low (I offer fixed fee advice as standard);
• Smaller firms tend to focus on a wider offering to clients, including (in my case) out of hours and urgent appointments, so you can be seen sooner and at your convenience;
• There’s value to being underestimated when working in such a technical and tactical area as litigation – it is possible to outmanoeuvre opponents who focus on a perceived inexperience or lack of ‘pedigree’ in their opponent and I’ve certainly been underestimated when toeing up to some of the biggest city firms in the past.  Those same large firms who might allocate a lesser experienced team member to you might do the same to your opponent;
• A smaller litigator has access to the same barristers, courts and experts as any other litigation firm so you aren't at a disadvantage;
• As most software and resource packages tend to charge per user, smaller firms are able to dedicate an appropriate budget to the most cutting-edge tools available (in my case the ability to book appointments and make payments online and the use of research and assistance tools with generative AI), leading to time and therefore costs savings;
• Payment arrangements - smaller firms tend to be more willing to work with you on payment terms or pricing, making representation on a budget work better for you.

These factors may well be the least important, though, as the firm size, name and ethos doesn’t matter when it comes to how good your litigator actually is.  Websites and CVs are really important, so check out website and social media bios.  Read reviews.  Do they have experience of dealing with the type of dispute you have?  Have they been reported in notable cases?  What do others say about them?  A really good litigator will tell you about more than just successes and will offer something extra.

At the end of the day, though, it's your choice.  First impressions and instinct go a long way.

If you’d like to see if we’re a fit make an enquiry.