Ashtons Legal Solicitors Bury St Edmunds

We chose to go with Ashtons Legal as there was a Cambridge office and there were a fair few good reviews. The experience we have had with them has been nothing short of a nightmare. Our case got assigned to someone at the Bury St Edmunds office - which was fine as due to COVID most stuff would be done through emails anyway. When we were given a case handler, we were told he would be in touch but we did not hear from them at all until we chased them 4 weeks after and had to call around the offices to get any form of contact. There was terrible lack of communication, with us never getting replies until we chase on emails and calls. We were told things had been done and then further down the line it was admitted that they hadn’t been done. Our process has taken 26 weeks and we still haven’t completed yet. Our case handler went off and we were not informed by him until the night before that he was going. We submitted a formal complaint and the Partner then took on our case, he did get things moving quicker at that point but it took a formal complaint for this to happen and so far we have been offered no form of compensation for the stress and uncertainty this has caused. Communication is key in processes like this and we personally feel like Ashtons Legal have nowhere near provided the services we should’ve received, especially for the money we are paying.

I needed to contact a solicitor as a matter of some urgency, and although the company was only working with a skeleton staff in the offices, due to the pandemic I was given an appointment within 4 days. The initially meeting was excellent and my mind was put at rest, followed by a very comprehensive letter/report detailing how things stood legally. I also needed to have a new Will written and again this was handled very professionally. I would highly recommend Ashtons Legal and would use them again if the situation arose.

The service offered by Ashtons is not cheap, but I consider it to be of great value. We felt that our solicitor - Clare - was as invested in our house sale as we were - much more so than some of the people at the estate agency we used. To 'Professional' you can add 'Friendly' and 'Reassuring'. We could not have asked Clare to have gone further than she did in terms of finding us answers during what turned into a prolonged, often frustrating house sale. Thank you!

Ashtons took me on when I really needed help, and Mandy was particularly amazing. Unfortunately due to certain circumstances with a few different solicitors I did get passed around a few times, but eventually ended back up with Mandy again. Would highly recommend.

The case was regarding a buisiness bankruptcy, not mine but resulting in a claim on my family home. I later discovered the solicitor I chose was inexperienced and not able to appear in court hearings. I was advised to use a barrister to represent me in the first of several hearings. It turned out to be in the wrong court so was dismissed. The barrister had to apologise to the judge for not being aware of new rules. I had to pay Ashtons the fee for that day amounting to approx. £2,400. My first instruction had been to keep my address abroad confidential, this was breached later as the case progressed. The opposing solicitors were calling the shots, my solicitor seemed in awe of them and even had to have them explain various points of law to her. The case dragged on for 18 months. The final insult was after the forced sale of my house. The final bill from Ashtons included an item ' Probate Fee' ( no one had died and this service was not required) I surmised it had been added to cover part of the final bill. In fact I did intend to withhold the payment until I could put forward my complaint. My house was sold for a fraction of the market value and 50% of the proceeds given to bankruptcy receivers. I put forward my complaint to a senior partner but it was not exactly a robust procedure, a panel of partners looked at it, I noticed one had the same surname as my solicitor . The points I mention here were not addressed. The breach of confidentiality, the Billing for an aborted court hearing, and false item of service which did not exist. I would not recommend this firm to anyone. My life savings were used up in legal fees amounting to 14k.