Two court buildings stand a few minutes apart on the southern edge of Nottingham's city centre. The Crown Court on Canal Street tries the most serious cases from the whole of Nottinghamshire and shares its building with the county court and the family court; the Nottingham Justice Centre on Carrington Street houses the magistrates' court and the employment tribunal's hearing centre. Most of the city's solicitors are within walking distance, in the Lace Market, around the Old Market Square and on the streets below the castle, with suburban practices in West Bridgford and Beeston. Nottingham is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and home to the head offices of several national law firms.
What the city brings through the door
Nottingham's economy is unusually varied for its size. Boots at Beeston, Experian and Capital One, the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, the two councils and the two universities employ tens of thousands, and employment disputes follow. The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University fill Lenton, Dunkirk, Radford and the Arboretum with students, so landlord and tenant work, the licensing of shared houses and the occasional student criminal case are year-round business. The night-time economy of Hockley, the Lace Market and the square keeps the magistrates and the defence firms busy at weekends. Beyond the city, the former coalfield towns of Mansfield and Eastwood and the market towns of Newark and Southwell bring coal mining reports, farms in the Trent valley and probate work for an older population.
Housing, from the Park to the Lace Market
Victorian terraces in Sneinton, Forest Fields and Sherwood; the private Park Estate beside the castle, with its own rules and charges; warehouse conversions in the Lace Market that are leasehold flats with service charges and building-safety questions; student houses subject to the city council's licensing schemes; new estates at Clifton and Gedling: Nottingham's housing sets the pattern of its property work.
Choosing and paying for a Nottingham solicitor
Ask first whether the firm handles your kind of problem every week: the larger Nottingham firms work in specialist teams, and the small ones are usually honest about what they turn away. Then ask how the fee is calculated, which is normally fixed for wills, lasting powers of attorney, conveyancing and the divorce application, and hourly, with an estimate for each stage, for anything contested. Legal aid still covers criminal defence, family cases involving abuse or care proceedings and some housing matters, though fewer firms hold a contract each year, so ask early. Check home and motor insurance for legal expenses cover, and read whether you can get legal help for free before paying privately. Every firm listed is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and featured firms have also passed the site's own verification.
Using this page
Each area of law is explained below as it works in Nottingham, with the firms that practise it listed under each heading, verified firms first. The Nottingham search finds solicitors near any address from Bulwell to Ruddington, and the Nottinghamshire search reaches Mansfield, Newark and Worksop. Leicester is half an hour down the M1; see Best Solicitors in Leicester for that side of the county line. The legal insights library explains everyday problems in plain English.
