J&P Coronavirus Update

At Judge and Priestley we have been closely following government advice regarding the developing Coronavirus-19 situation in the UK.

Our priority is the health and safety of everyone associated with our business – clients, employees and suppliers. We would like to assure our clients, and other visitors to our offices, that we are following UK Government recommendations and putting in place measures to help mitigate the risk of increased infections. To this end we are implementing practical ways to increase social distancing, with the minimum possible impact on the delivery of our services. 

Currently our offices remain open, although this will be reviewed as Government recommendations change, and we will issue further communications in this event.

We are however working to enable as many staff as is practical to work from home, wherever possible. This should have a limited impact on the continued progression of client matters. Phone lines will be diverted to mobiles and staff will have full access to email and the case management system.

The most notable impact will be on face to face meetings, which we are looking to reduce wherever possible. The fee earner handling your matter may contact you to cancel a physical meeting and handle the situation via telephone, or video conference. Similarly, given the current situation, we fully understand that you may not want to visit our offices in person. If you wish to change a pending face to face meeting to a telephone or video conference, then please contact the fee earner handling your matter directly (individual contact details can be found here).

We are confident that, by taking this approach, we can ensure that public health is protected and that your matter is dealt with as efficiently as possible.

Should you have cause to visit our offices then please be assured that our staff have been instructed to take all practical steps to minimise the risk of infection. Actions taken include;

• Promotion of frequent hand washing and good personal hygiene among staff
• More frequent and thorough office cleaning
• Social distancing – please do not be offended if your solicitor does not shake hands when greeting you, staff have been advised to limit physical contact with all clients and colleagues
• 14-day self-isolation for staff who present with symptoms
• All non-essential meetings that do not involve clients will be held by phone or video conference

We will issue further updates as this rapidly evolving situation develops.