Wards Solicitors Llp

I engaged Alison Bradley of Wards Solicitors, Bristol, in July 2023 to handle my no-fault divorce. Throughout the process my ex-spouse and I remained on amicable terms and were able to reach agreement on all matters. On the advice of Wards Solicitors, we used a mediator who prepared a Memorandum of Understanding and Financial Statement at a cost of £600 (paid to the mediator). At the outset I was advised that the divorce should take around six months and would cost a fixed fee of £600. The Final Order was eventually obtained in May 2026, two years and ten months after I instructed Wards Solicitors. During that period I paid Wards Solicitors a total of £4,817. I was disappointed by the difference between the original estimate and the eventual time taken and cost incurred. It is true that my ex's first solicitor was far from optimal. It is also true that my ex was slow to respond but neither of these factors can account for the two years and ten months that it eventually took.

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Alison Bradley

The developers recommended Ward hence I contacted them for new home purchase. Giving a quote and taking money were very instant and quick. Since then, every week, I was calling and emailing them to nag any updates or any supporting document they possibly need but the answer was "Kelly is not at her desk" for over 3months...?!?!? No communication for over 3months and they suddenly dropping email saying "sorry, we cannot take your case". I expressed my frustration and they were going to give the refund. It's now 4 week since they last emailed. Tossing my call around themselves and I am keep hearing empty promises that it will be refunded... I just had a call with one of them and apparently I got another further delay on my refund... Will I ever get the refund?!?! How can I ever claim refund for last 3month dealing with your unprofessional attitude and wasting my invaluable time?! THE MOST PATHETIC SERVICE I HAVE EVER RECEIVED!!!

So if you despise your relatives then this really is the firm for you. They will make life as miserable as possible for them while you laugh from beyond the grave. Now you obvisouly don't despise them enough to not provide for them you just want to make it as miserable as possible for them for a few years. So if you really do want to make it horrid for them I can not recommend these solicitors enough. If however you love your relatives then all I can suggest is you look elsewhere.

I was embroiled in a financial dispute with my ex ’partner and I was told the Wards would be the most suitable to assist. After an initial consultation, I was given an estimate of costs and informed that they would not conduct WiP (work in progress) before my pre-payment. I lodged £2,000 funds and received a T's & C's Contract and only a few worthless window dressing eMails from them but no invoices. I was then informed that professional work had stopped through lack of fees but they sent nothing that I could verify. I called into their Office in person to lodge more funds and was told they charged between 3% and 5% for Credit Cards use which I knew to have been outlawed some years earlier. Rather stupidly, I then accepted a quote of £3,000 for one session with their appointed Barrister only to be actually charged £7,000.00 +VAT. After a month or so of poor or no contact to my correspondence from Wards, I attended an extremely poorly conducted meeting and at the end, I called time on the whole debacle. I was especially annoyed that rather than take my instruction my Solicitor had pre-arranged a 'cosy-up' agreement with the other side. The Solicitor said to have been acting for me, wrote a deplorable letter to me accusing me of ‘walking out on them’ and offered to close my Account for a fee of £800.00 and not the £1,700.00 she claimed I actually owed. As I had by their arrangement, a ‘float’ of £2,000.00 for WiP I, evidently quite wrongly, assumed that I was to have around £1,200 refunded. How odious could they possibly get? Well, they later invoiced me saying that they had made an ‘errors’ in their Accounts Department, I actually owed them a further £2,000.00 and that they were now intending to charge the £1,700.00 too. I spoke with the Solicitor handling my case and after some ‘horse trading’ she agreed simply to close my account on that day with no fees one way or the other. A year later, Wards reopened their case and took me to Court for non-payment of their fees plus interest. My Solicitor by then had left Wards employment. Wards produced what I would claim to be ‘creative accounts’ for work that I had not ever been invoiced for, I suggest therefore that Wards are probably more criminal than some of their clients may be. I now have a CCJ against me from the very people that I instructed for support. That stinks.

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Lucia Caterina Mills

Very poor. Staff lack compassion. Inefficient and no attempt to work to any realistic time scale.