Antons Solicitors
The Scottish Law Specialists
About Us / Charities / Historical & General
There have been many changes since the firm commenced business in 1885, not only changes and progress in the law but also changes and progress in office equipment, in particular with the advent of IT. This obviously has had a substantial impact on the work dealt with in the office and on clients\' expectations. Whilst the advent of IT systems has been beneficial to the legal practice, not least in terms of the speed at which matters can be dealt with, the introduction of all the regulatory requirements has had the opposite effect for legal businesses. For example, there is now the requirement to send a letter of engagement to all clients, to ID all clients and carry out money laundering checks, to name but a few. These regulatory requirements are very time consuming and costly but are matters that need to be attended to before a Solicitor can commence the actual legal work. Clients\' expectations have also changed greatly over the years and many clients now have quite unreasonable expectations and often equate the speed with which a matter can be dealt with as being a job well done. This is not always the case and we would always recommend to clients that no matter how anxious they are to have the matter concluded, it is better to take a bit longer to deal with the matter and achieve the best solution and have it done right, than to get the matter dealt with as quickly as possible and not done correctly or end up with a solution that the client is less than happy with. This is particularly true in matrimonial separation cases. Very often, in these situations, especially just after parties have separated, clients want the matter finalised immediately. However, if they do get matters finalised immediately, albeit on their own instructions, they can very often regret their haste eg six months later when they have had opportunity to reflect on matters and consider what they have foregone in order to achieve quick settlement, at which stage it is frequently too late to do anything about it.
Another factor which impacts on a busy legal practice is the many different means of communication which are now available. A busy solicitor is now greeted every morning with a pile of incoming mail, a number of telephone messages, a host of e-mails and a diary of appointments. Whilst all these methods of communication bring advantages, they also bring disadvantages. More and more solicitors in the busy modern practice find themselves explaining to clients that they cannot revert to them as quickly as the client would like, as they need to prioritise their workload. This is due to the amount of work to be dealt with, the fact that deadlines are imposed on Solicitors which are outwith their control and the fact that Solicitors do not know at the outset which particular case will end up in Court before it settles or which conveyance will require a substantial amount of additional work before it can be concluded. Having said all of the above, we are committed to providing an excellent service to clients and ease the burden for them at a time which is often very stressful, eg moving house, separation/divorce or death of a relative.
