Has anyone used Lawhive (online legal advice) and would you recommend them?

AbbyWth

Looking for low cost legal divorce advice 

Jude57

AbbyWth said:

Looking for low cost legal divorce advice 

People here usually suggest Wikivorce as a source of free advice and support on divorce matters but it's not a substitute for proper, paid for advice, especially if there are children and/or property and finances involved. If you have no friends or colleagues who can recommend a local firm have a look online for local Family Law solicitors near you and ring or e-mail a few to ask about a free half hour discussion. During that discussion, which might be by phone, they should be able to give you some idea of likely costs. If you're going to see or speak to a solicitor, make detailed notes beforehand of everything you want to cover so that you get the advice you need and don't waste time trying to think during the meeting. Most solicitors will allow you to pay in instalments over time (not years, though) so ask about that.

born_again

Lawhive is your gateway to affordable, fast legal help in the UK. Lawhive uses licensed solicitors you can connect with online for up to 50% of the cost of a high-street law firm.

Enquiries submitted through this website are directed to Lawhive Ltd, which is not a law firm and does not provide any legal advice. Our network of legal service providers includes our affiliate company Lawhive Legal Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (ID number: 8003766) and is a company registered in England & Wales (Company number: 14651095).

So without knowing how much a high street one is costing 🤷‍♀️

AbbyWth

@Jude57 and @born_again  thank you both!  

AbbyWth

I'd still be interested to know if anyone has used Lawhive though, and what your experiences were - even not related to divorce.

Jude57

AbbyWth said:

I'd still be interested to know if anyone has used Lawhive though, and what your experiences were - even not related to divorce.

I haven't used them but they are just an introducer, putting you in touch with solicitors online and presumably receiving a financial reward for doing so, like a commission. They make no claims to be legally qualified (it would be an offence to do so) but their claims to be cheaper than a High Street firm are impossible to verify. They don't know the details of your (or anyone's) case, they've no idea what your local solicitors charge (it varies geographically and by who does the work; you'd pay a premium for a central City solicitor over, say, a small town solicitor and a premium for a senior partner to deal with your case, for example) so it's a baseless claim in my opinion. As for dealing with solicitors exclusively online, that's personal preference but I'd rather deal with a firm with physical offices and experienced staff who know the local Courts and can discuss my case face to face. I've known a number of people who have dealt with online conveyancers and Will drafters, for example, with mixed results. They were, for example, surprised that their transaction wasn't actually dealt with by a solicitor but by a paralegal and, in one case, shocked to discover that the big, online firm they thought they were using had only one qualified solicitor employed by the firm to 'oversee' all the work of tens of lesser qualified staff. They are, not for nothing, known in legal circles as 'conveyancing sheds'.

It's a matter of preference ultimately but I'd ask what value an introducer could bring to a case. If your case is so unique it requires very specialised legal advice, online firms simply cannot provide it. In such a case, the Law Society would help you to find a suitably qualified firm although such specialist knowledge may not be local and may indeed be expensive. If your case is, like the vast majority, pretty straightforward, a local firm in practice for many years can bring a depth of local knowledge (and contacts) with which an online only firm just can't compete.

Finally, in considering the most important legal transactions of most people's lives, property sale and purchase, divorce and Wills, where the consequences to the client of it going wrong are potentially catastrophic, other than price (which is unlikely to be a fixed price by the online firms whatever they claim) I'd ask what, precisely, you (anyone) thinks is to be gained by becoming one of several hundred cases being churned out by a team of paralegal clerks overseen by one solicitor who isn't on the premises compared to one of only tens of cases dealt with or closely supervised by an experienced solicitor in an actual office, available to give immediate guidance. It's your choice, of course.