Look elsewhere ...

As with another reviewer's complaints, I too, will agree this is a firm to avoid.

And as with the other reviewer, I also requested their complaints procedure document: reading it, I lost any remaining respect I might've had for this firm of solicitors that administered an estate through probate. When the complaints policy is specifically oriented towards conveyancing and contains glaring, egregious grammatical errors unacceptable from a primary school student, it tells me a lot about their inner workings and how they see and conduct their business. For example "If after this, there is any outstanding issues ...". Come on! It's not even a PDF but an old 2004 MS Word document they send? This, with my experience of the other forms I've had to fill out, show they are old, often containing otherwise irrelevant or redundant language, some of which I found necessary to strike out as it was not in my interest there to cover themselves in the event of error on their part.

That said, probate took far too long due, in part, to the excruciating process of the protracted communications with the solicitor handling probate, Bryony Wilmshurst, and her assistant. Why, for one example, did it take six emails and several phone calls just to confirm the original and correct bank routing code I provided for disbursement? That, of course, delayed the process (again) because the "cut off" time for wire transfers had passed.

On the subject of disbursement, why weren't all options explained and detailed, concisely, at the beginning of this horrible process? Obviously a cheque was one of the options and another was electronic transfer. On requesting the latter option after the first option was explored and found unworkable, why did it take well over a week to execute?

On this disbursement issue, asking why disbursement of MY funds couldn't be made with my explicit authorization to a third party (my sister), why did I have to ask five times for an explanation before I was told "rules governing solicitors" forbade this? Any particular reason for this? Who knows? I wasn't in the clique so heaven forbid I might know their secret sauce.

Why, when the process had been decided and executed, was I forced to demand an itemised invoice as the funds had already transferred into my account -- the previous morning? Why did that invoice, once received, not tally with the disbursement and bank figures I had in front of me? Why do they balk (refuse) to offer to explain the still missing amount and dismiss it with a curt "Any other charges deducted from this amount will be bank charges."? No further help is being offered on their process and work that I paid them to implement.

Why when I asked about VAT (I am non-resident) it was made clear they were not in a position to help (nor advise) me?

In short, everything was protracted, byzantine and hampered by arcane and anachronistic tradition that have little bearing on modern business (I know since I am in business in another country which tends to bend over backwards to lubricate the gears of commerce: in the legal, banking, insurance and general service industries, there is a lot the UK could learn -- especially Cunningtons.)

The bottom line is that lawyers are the butt of many jokes and these people epitomize some of the traits leading to such ridicule and contempt. They are supposed to represent the individual in legal matters but instead would appear to represent only their own best interests in the course of sloppy and archaic business practices. Whilst lawyers are a necessity in life, it is best to read reviews and perform your own due diligence before committing to a specific firm. In this case, the choice was not mine but were it to have been, rest assured I'd have chosen someone else for probate. Lawyers often try to play their cards close to their chest and some seem to know the game better than others.

So, once again, although only a £22 loss, the damned lawyers win again. It is hardly in my interest to pursue this through their arcane complaints procedures when I know forehand that it will take weeks and weeks and enormous hurdles of bureaucratic obfuscation for me to eventually find I have little or no recourse, since I am not a lawyer and those against whom I might rail can, will and do use the law to protect themselves and their interests more often, in my opinion, than to protect you and yours. I've not recourse then than to halt any further communication or processing.

My advice is to always ask around, read web reviews (NOT testimonials on their own site), talk to competitors and always, always ask their charges: tie them down to the details. It is not unreasonable to expect costs to change but they should be within the region of their first estimate.

Regardless, if it were me I'd find another firm.