Bogus solicitors

It is a criminal offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor or act as a solicitor if they are not on the roll of solicitors. We call these people 'bogus solicitors' and we may prosecute them. We publish alerts about bogus solicitors and theft or cloning of a genuine solicitor's identity.

All genuine solicitors are on the roll of solicitors, which we administer, and will be able to give you their SRA number on request.

Solicitors Register

You can check whether a law firm is regulated by us using our Solicitors Register. You can search using the regulated name of a law firm—not its trading name(s). You can also search for a firm by entering its SRA ID number. 

If you would like to check that a solicitor is genuine, or if you think you are dealing with a bogus solicitor, contact us  immediately.

Checking their details

If you think a letter, email or phone call isn't from a solicitor, please check another source such as a website and/or any previous correspondence them. You can also check contact details with us.

Please contact us  immediately if you think you are dealing with a bogus solicitor or someone is misusing a genuine solicitor's identity.

You can also read our guidance for solicitors on bogus law firms and identity theft.

Lawyers

Please be aware anyone providing legal services can call themselves a lawyer but only those we regulate can say they are a solicitor. You can find out more about the different types of lawyers on the Legal Choices website.

Please use www.sra.org.uk/bogus-solicitors to link to this page.