Learning from others’ mistakes…
February 2020 | Martin Fuller
I left school at 16, semi-literate and after 7 years I secured a job, which in reality was more by luck than judgement. It was with a firm of solicitors in London’s East End as an outdoor clerk (which was actually an unqualified post boy).
After a couple of years, I was shown into a reasonably large office with filing cabinets and a desk, which were all piled high with files of varying sizes. On my chair was a pile of unanswered correspondence and unfiled documents. This was my first introduction to family law.
I was told this was my office and my department. I was shown where the phone was under the files, and was just left to get on with it!
At this stage, in my career, as I recall I had just failed my first year exams as a Legal Executive for the second year running, and had also been diagnosed as suffering with dyslexia.
Over the following weeks and months I was hounded by unhappy clients, who would sit in my office shouting, swearing and even often threatening to give me a good hiding. This was London’s East End in the early 1990’s. I was the only family lawyer in this particular firm. Whilst speaking with other lawyers in other firms, I was told that this was the way it was in the ‘highly emotive’ field of family law, and that the clients were just in a ‘very bad place’. However, that was only half true. I felt I was not delivering on my part of the deal. I desperately wanted to become a much better lawyer.
As I started to extend my reading around subjects of family law, negotiation, and conflict management amongst other areas, my confidence and skill set started to grow and the complaints started to fall away as I started representing my clients to the very best of my ability. I have always known that family law is very easy to practice badly; by giving poor advice, by missing potentially winning arguments, and in some cases settling for much less than your client could have received at court.
After qualifying in 1996, I moved to Milton Keynes where I found myself in the same situation within a company offering poor advice and missing opportunities. Indeed it happened yet again when I was later employed in Bedford. I found both situations frustrating and annoying!
Many family law clients have never used a lawyer before. They are facing probably one of the most frightening experiences of their lives, facing at worst the loss of their relationship, home, children, financial wealth, job and in some cases even their health. To top it all, they can be paying large sums of money to lawyers who may not be representing them adequately.
To be absolutely clear, I am not saying that all family lawyers are providing poor value-for-money advice, but in my opinion too many are. It can be easy to provide poor advice, because many family law clients do not have the experience, or understanding of the litigation process within family law to know what is good or bad advice, and even why it is given and I believe family lawyers have an absolute duty to look at the bigger picture and provide very structured all round representation.
I set up Fullers Family Law because I did not believe family law was serving its clients well at that point. I wanted to provide the very best service and legal advice for families in difficulty. In my view, family law is so important that it deserves a firm that specialises in family law that is committed to providing good representation for families experiencing relationship breakdown and in need of help. To that end Fullers Family Law Practice was born.
Over a period of time our ethos has evolved into a commitment to providing specialist professional advice on family law matters, and to do so with empathy, connection and understanding. All of our staff aim to offer a friendly service, focused on you and your needs, from the first point of contact and throughout our time working on your behalf. We will resolve all of your concerns and address all of your issues ensuring that you are professionally represented whilst with Fullers.
If you would like to find out more about our services please contact reception on 01234 343134 or email us at enquiries@fullersfamilylaw.com
