Barker and Lowe Legal Recoveries - sounds like a real legal firm - but is it?
A Payday lender was recently ordered to pay £2.6 million in compensation.
The company had been sending letters to customers who had fallen behind with their repayments. The letters threatened to take legal action against customers and charges were added to customers' accounts for the cost of sending the letters.
The letters appeared to have been sent by law firms, for example Barker and Lowe Legal Recoveries. However, the law firms did not really exist.
How to check a lawyer or firm
Most legal firms and lawyers are real, but before you ask a lawyer to carry out any work for you it is sensible to check they are genuine. You can also make sure that there are no disciplinary penalties against them.
Go to our type of lawyer page and click on the type of lawyer you intend to instruct from the list on the left hand side of the page. This will take you to facts about that type of lawyer.
To check whether a legal adviser or firm is regulated to offer legal services, you can check the legal services regulators' registers.
Find more information from the Solicitors Regulation Authority's scam alert page about things to watch out for from bogus solicitors and scams.
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Many thanks for your comment.
To check if someone is a regulated lawyer in England and Wales there are links to the online registers for each category of lawyer in the ‘Types of Lawyers’ section on the Legal Choices website : http://www.legalchoices.org.uk/legal-choices/types-of-lawyers/
However sometimes other people who aren’t a regulated lawyer provide certain types of legal advice and support. For example, this includes people who write wills, as this is not a legal activity that can only be carried out by someone who is regulated.
As you have already spoken to the SRA in this case, it may be advisable firstly to ask the person you are interested in verifying to confirm their job title – whether he or she is a solicitor, another type of regulated lawyer, or someone else – and if he or she is regulated by anybody.
Once you have this information it will be easier to work out their status.
I hope that is helpful.
Legal Choices
Have you tried to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). They can advise if your solicitor is still practising.
The Contact Centre will be able to look this up for you:
http://www.sra.org.uk/contact-us/
Hope this is helpful.
Thank you
Legal Choices
I need help I'll just wanna check if there's a Law firm named Winters Capital located in 16 Hanover Square London and an attorney named Barr Alexander Winters. Please help!
Thank you!
Have you seen the Solicitors Register?
This register is a definitive impartial source of information about the law firms and people regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), it can be found here:
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/check-and-find-a-solicitor/solicitors-register/
The register will help to check whether somebody is a solicitor and find out where they work. Check whether the SRA regulate a law firm, and check for firms the SRA have closed down, and people they have prohibited from practising as a solicitor.
Additionally, if you need to speak to the SRA Contact Centre, please get in touch here:
https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/
Thanks
Legal Choices Team
The Solicitors Register is a definitive impartial source of information about law firms and people regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), it can be found here:
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/register/
It will help you to:
• Check whether somebody is a solicitor and find where they work.
• Check whether we regulate a law firm.
• Check for firms we have closed down, and people we have prohibited from practising as a solicitor.
Thanks
Legal Choices
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We can't answer legal questions or give legal advice. If you need help with a legal problem, consult our list of legal issues to find out your options.