From the railway viaduct the cathedral and the castle fill the train window, and it is easy to forget how small the city beneath them is: a peninsula of colleges, a market place and a ring of suburbs and former pit villages running east to the coast at Seaham and west to the dales at Stanhope and Barnard Castle. Durham's solicitors serve all of it. The firms in the city act for the university, the hospital, County Hall and the students; the firms in Chester-le-Street, Consett, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and Peterlee act for the towns and villages that the coal board and the county council once held together.
Durham's courts
Durham Crown Court sits in the old assize court on Old Elvet, beside the prison, and takes the serious criminal cases of the whole county, from the coast to the Teesdale fells. Magistrates' courts at Peterlee and Newton Aycliffe deal with most of the rest, so a city defendant often travels for a first hearing. Civil and family cases are listed by the county and family court serving Durham, and employment tribunal claims are heard in Newcastle or, for the south of the county, on Teesside.
What County Durham brings through the door
Students and their landlords make the city unusual. Houses in multiple occupation in the Viaduct, Claypath and Gilesgate, licensed by the county council and limited by planning controls, produce tenancy, deposit and disrepair disputes every academic year, while the university and the University Hospital of North Durham employ a large professional workforce with the divorces, wills and employment disputes of any cathedral city. The rest of the county looks different. In the former colliery villages of Easington, Horden, Stanley and Crook, houses are cheap, every purchase needs a coal mining search, and the council's selective licensing scheme now covers many private landlords. Durham County Council itself, the train factory at Newton Aycliffe and the science companies at NETPark in Sedgefield are the big employers; farms in Weardale and Teesdale need agricultural tenancy, succession and planning advice; and the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme turns up in a great many Durham divorces and estates.
Fees, legal aid and choosing a firm
Wills, lasting powers of attorney, conveyancing and the divorce application are normally fixed-fee; disputes are charged by the hour with an estimate per stage, and a first appointment is often free. Legal aid still covers criminal defence, care proceedings, domestic abuse cases and some housing work, but not every County Durham firm holds a contract, so ask at once if you need it. Legal expenses cover and union membership are worth checking first. Every firm listed is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority; verified firms have also passed the site's own verification of their SRA record, contact details and reviews.
Searching from Durham
The sections below take each area of law in turn, with the Durham firms that practise it listed under each, verified first. For a firm near a particular address, from Consett to Seaham, use the Durham search or the wider County Durham search. Chester-le-Street and the north of the county are often closer to Newcastle's firms or Sunderland's, and the legal insights guides explain each problem in plain English.
