Skip to main content

Solicitors from Hell - a genuine customer service, a scam or absolute b**ll**ks?

http://www.solicitorsfromhell.com/ is a new consumer website that has attracted the attention of the Law Society Gazette and numerous solicitors firms who have had the pleasure of an entry on it. There appear to be over 500 law firms listed on it, and as far as I could see most of the complaints were not really complaints but fairly damaging comments...

I recently came across it when looking for a firm of solicitor's contact details and discovered the second entry in Google was this site. The review of the firm read as follows:

LEGAL LAW - London SW
London SW

Solicitor : Legal Eagle (details changed for obvious reasons!)

" Unfortunately we have only just heard about this site, had we had a chance to do a check on him prior it would have saved a great deal of upset and stress. My female cousin went to see this ‘solicitor’ with housing problems. At the initial consultation he was extremely friendly – actually overly so when his secretary went out of the room.

He asked many personal questions that were not actually relevant to the case in question and gave out information about what he had allegedly done to help other clients. He kept going on about her being a young vulnerable woman and stated that he was going to take several actions on her behalf as she was being harassed by the landlord.

However as my cousin felt uncomfortable seeing him alone she asked me to come to the next meeting. When he saw that she was accompanied by a male family member, he was abrupt and tried to give the impression that he had not really wanted to take her on as a client in the first instance. He stated that she did not need the help of a solicitor – however this had not stopped him from applying for and receiving the legal aid to progress her case.

He wrote a long letter of summery allegedly to explain ‘why’ she did not need his help - which was actually more like a personal tirade against his own client and told her to make a complaint if she felt she had the strength! It was then difficult to find another solicitor to transfer the LSF to; luckily the solicitor my cousin then found was extremely professional, helpful and progressed a speedy resolution on her behalf.

Only use this firm if you want to be disappointed and put under stress. Not to be trusted!! "

I am not quite sure what the complainant's complaint is having read it through a few times - is it that the solicitor was not only from hell but also a bit of a creep? Was the solicitor trying to defraud the LSC? Does this feedback assist anyone in deciding whether to hire this firm of solicitors or not?

The service obviously provides a genuine service when you get a firm like SMK Solicitors, who are now shut down due to a range of problems and have been intervened. A site with feedback detailing the potential fraud that a client experienced would be helpful for anyone else to know to avoid it.

However read the feedback on a law firm in the South West:

"I worked at X (thankfully not for long). A good example of the way the firm operates is when I was told to create as much conflict as possible in child contact cases in order to maximise costs. This firm definitely needs some intervention from the Law Society. The Senior Partners are a joke and would not survive in a modern law firm. It is true, they are fascist bullies. Oh, and where I work now, I am allowed to make myself a cup of coffee! "

This sort of entry could be put down to a former employee airing a grievance and trying to get one over on the firm. They have certainly done this. The firm in question obviously now have anyone thinking of instructing them and reading this that the staff do not like working there, the firm is bent, the partners not very nice. It could damage that firm's reputation forever. I certainly had no idea that the firm were thought of in this way, and we introduced one of the partners mentioned to the firm many years ago!

I understand that unless a law firm pays an "administration fee" of £200 then the entry remains on the site for eternity. This means that anyone searching for the law firm will inevitably come across comments like this one.

Think of the black hat marketing potential of this site. Any law firm in Swindon for example could post anonymous comments onto the site for their competitors and sit back and watch their instructions increase. Obviously this comment is intended as irony....(before we get sued!).

So in summary I am afraid we think that the site is b**ll**ks. There has been no effort to identify the posters, and this makes the site positively evil as it could unfairly irreparably damage someone's reputation who does not deserve it.

I hope the owner of the site sees some sense or gets tired of receiving writs in the post and takes it down or identifies each complainant. I think that without any control this site is simply destroying law firms very unfairly indeed.

Jonathan Fagan - Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - www.ten-percent.co.uk

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.


Our Legal Careers Shop has eBooks on CV Writing for Lawyers, Legal Job Interview Guide, Interview Answers for Lawyers, NQ Career Guide, Guide to Finding Work Experience or a Training Contract and the Entrants Guide to the Legal Profession. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop





Comments

Anonymous said…
I was interested to read about the "solicitors from hell" website (fortunately, I am not on it!).

I then noticed the advertisement for "Solicitors from Heaven" and clicked on this and was shocked to note that postings about solicitors who provide a good service stay on that website for only 30 days and the Solicitor has to pay £299 (!!!) to have the posting remain permanently.

Definitely a money making scam as far as I am concerned, talk about double standards!

With kind regards
Raymond Ashley said…
People do not go on Solicitors Fro Hell for nothing. Indeed, it's because they have been ripped off by their Solicitors and the rest of the Corrupt Complaints System, and that's a fact. The owner of the site just like all the complainants does not have a cat in hells chance of thoser who want to SUE him because their friends within the Legal system including the Judges will destroy any body who dares to stant up them. Two cases spring to my mind Maurice Kirk 17 years living nighmare now doing the rounds in Government, was found not GUILTY by a Jury in Cardiff 11-1 majority, and they have hounded him ever since, and now he's holded up in France fearful of his life.Scarth V UK
won his case in the European Courts and now on the statute books, then lost the same case in the Bradford Courts? 84 years of age, and Blairs gestapo kicked him on the ground for standing in Elections against the Iraq war he being a second world war hero. But one day the people power will rid the Country of all this CORRUPTION and I hope I see the day, and best wish's to the site owner who's doing a PUBLIC SERVICE and nothing other. Mr Raymond Ashley 100% character.

Popular posts from this blog

Overpaid Charity CEOs - top 40 of high paid employees - updated 2022

In 2014, we wrote an article about high pay in the charity sector after the Charity Commission started to require all charities to disclose pay of senior executives earning more than £60,000.    We have updated the list for 2022, with a comparison chart so you can see the difference between 2014 and 2022. We have included the source of the most recent salary levels and the year refers to the accounts year we extracted the salary information from.   2022 Top 40 Chart of High Paying Charities Charity Highest salary Year Consumers’ Association £390k-£400k 2020 MSI Reproductive Choices £240k-£250k 2020 Save the Children International £285k-£300k 2020 Cancer Research UK £240k-£250k 2020 The British Red Cross Society £170k-£180k 2020 Age UK £180k-£190k 2020

Is it possible to work as a Paralegal when you are a Qualified Solicitor

  This question comes up all the time and is quite a common query that we imagine the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are getting better at answering due to the sheer number of people asking the question. Many years ago the advice seemed a bit varied at times, but we have recently had a candidate who wanted to work in a locum role in the short term and waiting to go back on the Roll and get a practising certificate after some time spent outside the profession. She has been given fairly concise advice on whether she could work as a paralegal whilst waiting to be readmitted which we are repeating here. This article is written as a discussion point and is not intended to be advice in any shape or form. For full advice on your particular set of circumstances please speak to the SRA (or whoever else you like, but please do not depend on the information in this article!). The SRA have a simple online test to determine if you need a practising certificate and this i

What questions are asked in an Investors in People Assessment?

Recently Ten Percent Legal Recruitment was assessed for the investor in people accreditation. We worked very hard on this and spent some time as a company ensuring that all our procedures and policies were in place and that our staff were aware of the various requirements of the Investor in People process. We wondered how the assessment would go and also what the questions were likely to be during the interviews. The assessor was very friendly and explained from the outset what she was wanting to do and we were already aware that we would have thirty minute interviews with the directors and managers and twenty minute interviews with the staff. We also had the Investors in People programme so we were able to look and see what the actual questions would be based on, but there was nowhere to indicate what questions would be asked in the investor in people assessments. So if this helps anyone else, here are the questions we were asked in our investors in people accreditation: The assessor