Update on providing you with our legal services from 14 Feb 2022

Update on our Covid Procedures as of 14 February 2022

All our office premises have their door open to offer pre-booked appointments. It is at your discretion if you wish to wear a face covering when visiting our offices, we continue to offer hand sanitising and social distancing in our receptions and meeting rooms.

Our legal team offer pre-booked appointments for in person meetings at our offices and continue to offer appointments on the telephone or via video conferencing.

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Our update below was from July 2021 onwards
All four of our offices in York, Malton, Pickering and Selby have their doors open to the public for pre-booked appointments from Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

We ask you to continue to wear a face covering (unless you are exempt), hand sanitise and social distance when visiting any of our four offices. The safety of our clients, staff and visitors is paramount to us.

We know from the government’s own advisors and from the World Health Organization, that wearing a face covering indoors does reduce transmission of the virus. Given that the number of daily infections continues to rise as of 8 December 2021 (day Prime Minister held a Coronavirus briefing and put Plan B in to action in England), Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors is asking all visitors to its four offices to wear a face covering (unless you are exempt) to protect you, other visitors and our staff.

Our expert and trusted legal team continue to primarily work remotely to provide you with the legal services you need. Please rest assured that we are continuing to provide our full range of legal services to support our clients.

Of course, the safety of our clients and staff is paramount, and clients can therefore expect to see a range of Covid-19 secure restrictions in place in our offices, including safety screens at our reception desks and in our meeting rooms. Clients are welcome to attend and speak with the reception teams at all of our offices, but will need to make appointments to meet with legal advisors, many of whom will continue working both from home and at the office in order to keep numbers in our buildings low enough to allow proper social distancing, so our clients can feel reassured of their safety when coming in to see us.

Please can we ask you to email us if you are able to, rather than sending us post with most of our staff working from home. We are operating to our usual hours, so emailing us will speed up the process of getting your correspondence to the appropriate legal advisor.

You can of course also telephone one of our offices to speak to a member of staff - York 01904 624185, Selby 01757 708957, Malton 01653 600070 or Pickering 01751 472121. Direct contact details for our staff can be found on our 'Meet the Team' page on our website.

If you visit one of our offices, please follow the advice we have provided on various posters and signs on our doors and throughout our offices.

If you have arranged an appointment with us, you will have been given additional information regarding your visit and we ask that you please follow this. Please see the notes below on the Client Pre-Appointment Guidelines which we will ask you to follow if you attend one of our offices. These guidelines include wearing a mask or other face covering during your meeting. Our staff will be doing the same to ensure a greater level of safety for yourself and our staff at the current time. Thank you in advance.

We are regularly monitoring and adapting our services in line with Government guidelines. We want to reassure all of our clients and contacts that we are taking appropriate actions to implement the latest advice from the UK Government to ensure that we keep our people safe while continuing to provide our full range of services to support you in this challenging period.

We have in place secure, remote working facilities and an electronic case management system and your confidential information will be kept secure and up to date.

Our legal advisors will continue to work on your matter so that we maintain our service during these challenging times.

If you do not want to visit one of our offices for an appointment, we are, of course, still very much ‘open for business remotely’, in the way we have been since the start of the pandemic. We are successfully holding appointments on the telephone and via video conferencing with clients. The contact details for our staff are on the ‘Meet the Team’ page of our website. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for legal help and advice, we are here for you, your family and your business.

Our team are working really hard remotely, providing an excellent service to our clients and supporting each other to work together as one team to deliver on our Service Pledge and our firms Values (Client Centred, Citizenship, Continuous Improvement).

We are well placed to deliver our services while working remotely, after we adapted how we work during the first lockdown, we continue to make improvements as we receive feedback and adopt new ideas.

Ultimately, we put our staff and clients’ health and wellbeing ahead of everything we do to make sure we do the right thing for the collective effort in reducing the spread of the virus. We are sorry for any inconvenience, but we know that you will appreciate the steps are being taken to protect everyone.

We thank you for your understanding and most of all, please stay safe.

Duncan Morter
Managing Director

Covid-19 Client Pre-Appointment Guidance

Our priority during this pandemic is to protect you and our staff, so you will see some changes when you attend our offices which allow us to adhere to social distancing regulations.

We kindly ask you to follow these guidelines prior to and during your appointment with us at Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors.

Prior to your appointment

• Our staff will confirm with you whether you have had any of the following symptoms within the last 7 days:
  • Persistent cough
  • High temperature
  • Loss of taste/smell
• If you have had any of the above symptoms, please do not attend our office. We will either make arrangements to hold your appointment over the phone/via video call if possible or we will rearrange an appointment for a later date.
• Please ensure you attend the meeting following current Government guidelines regarding who should be accompanying you.
• Our staff will ask you and anyone attending your appointment for consent to disclose your name and contact details to Public Health England and/or test and trace in the event that a request from those organisations is made for the purpose of limiting the spread of Covid-19.

Arrival at our office

• Please ensure you wear a suitable face mask or covering when attending our offices for a meeting. Our Legal Advisers will also be wearing a face mask during all meetings.
• We are taking steps to stagger meetings to avoid congestion in the public areas of the offices. Please do try to arrive at your appointment on time in order to limit waiting times and the number of clients waiting at the same time in the reception area.
• Please sanitise your hands using the gel provided in the Reception area as soon as you are able to.
• Please ensure you keep a 2-metre distance away from our staff and other clients at all times.
• Unfortunately, we will not be able to make you any refreshments.
• We will have a toilet facility available to you should you need it. Please ask a member of staff for information on which toilet you should use.

During your appointment

• Please sanitise your hands before and after the meeting using the hand gel provided.
• Please do not shake hands with our staff.
• Please can you ensure that you keep a 2-metre distance away from staff members and stay well behind any screens in the meeting room.
• Please try to avoid touching door handles where possible and allow our staff to open doors for you.

You will appreciate that we are doing what we can to make your visit as pleasant as possible and with limited inconvenience, whilst adhering to the health advice from the Government. Please do bear with us on this and let us know if you have any queries or concerns.