About Us
Hannays Solicitors and Advocates Limited have a long standing connection with South Shields, as the original Mr Hannay established a Solicitors in the town during the 1890’s.  The last solicitor of the Hannay family retired in the 1980’s, but we still meet clients who remember the Hannays family.

The firm has seen a long line of solicitors since the 1890’s serving the community of South Tyneside making us one of the oldest firms of solicitors in the area. Most of our clients still live locally in South Tyneside,  but we have many clients who live in the North-East of England, as well as clients from other parts of England and Wales.

The old firm of Hannays merged with Graeme Cook Solicitors in 2006. We changed the name of the firm in 2012 to Hannays Solicitors and Advocates to reflect our long standing heritage.

On 1st May 2022 we started to trade as a Limited Company and we are now known as Hannays Solicitors and Advocates Limited.

Due to our authorisation and regulation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority we can only carry out legal work for our clients in England and Wales.

We have a commitment to working in the best interests of our clients at all times.

We specialise in conveyancing, family/children law and private client services:

We hold a contract with the Legal Aid Agency to provide publicly funded work for Family & Children legal services.

We are a member of the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) and have been awarded the Law Society quality mark for legal services, LEXCEL.

CQS and LEXCEL are renewed annually following a rigorous process.

Working with our clients

From the onset we aim to provide high quality advice and legal services, whether privately or publicly funded in a clear, frank and honest manner.

We work with our clients to determine the best course of action and whether it is worthwhile proceeding, bearing in mind that some legal services can be very costly.

We always provide a written quotation prior to being instructed to enable clients to assess our costs and compare them with other quotes.

It is part of our service to explain the potential costs involved and the options available as this ensures there are no hidden costs or surprises later.

For most of our private client matters including conveyancing we provide a comprehensive fixed fee quotation prior to instructions being accepted.  Our quotations include disbursements, (for example, Court fees, taxes and H.M. Land Registry fees). This gives our clients a complete picture of what they should expect to pay throughout their matter. Sometimes there is an unexpected event or new information arises, which adds to the costs or expenses, but if this happens we always provide an explanation to our clients  and inform them why there is a need for the additional expense so it is clearly understood and agreed before proceeding.

Funding options are explained including whether Legal Aid is an option for our family and children matters. As Legal Aid is not always available for family matters now we try to help by being as flexible as possible by discussing payment options.

We also explain how we bill and expect to be paid. Usually for privately funded family matters, payments are requested from the client during the transaction to cover costs and disbursements which means at the end of the matter only a small amount remains to be paid to us. For a conveyancing purchase we only request  payment for the search fees at the start of a purchase transaction or £50 on account for a sales transaction.  At the end of a conveyancing matter we issue a completion statement which sets out the whole transaction to lets our clients understand what money has been received and paid and why.

More information about our fees and example transaction can be found here.

Accessibility

We are committed to using plain English in our communications and keeping our clients fully informed. We also use a range of interpreting services to assist our clients if English is not their first language or to assist hearing and sight disabled clients.

We will also make home visits within the South Tyneside, Sunderland, and Washington areas at no extra charge for disabled, elderly or infirm clients who cannot visit us at our office – not many firms offer this service.

Our offices are open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays.

Our phone calls are recorded for monitoring and training purposes.

Quality legal services

We provide a quality legal service and can demonstrate this as we have held the Law Society Lexcel Quality Mark since 2012 and receive excellent client feedback.

Lexcel is developed specifically for the Legal Profession. It is an optional, recognised accreditation scheme for law firms which gives assurances that a practice meets the highest client care and business management standards.

We are a member of the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS). 

Our Family and Children Solicitors are member of the Law Society Children Panel and Resolution.

Our details

Hannays Solicitors and Advocates Limited  is a Company registered in the United Kingdom and authorised to practise in England and Wales.

Our Registered office is at 19 Beach Road, South Shields, NE33 2QA.

Our Company Registration Number is 13923492.

Directors: Kim Clifford Rainford and Gillian Wright.

The Firm is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Our SRA number is: 839162.

Our VAT number is : 178344144

Details of our indemnity insurance is available upon request.

Our Complaints Procedure : Hannays Complaints Procedure V.1.4.23

The SRA Code of Practice for Solicitors can be accessed here.

Our Data Protection Officer is: Kim Clifford Rainford and we are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner.