Latimer Hinks Solicitors Limited

Latimer Hinks was recommended by a friend. The lady who dealt with our case was very professional and explained clearly and precisely what was happening each visit. I would heartily recommend them .

A nightmare. Bad for the reputation of solicitors. The Legal Ombudsman is investigating, so should the SRA. Bullying, deceitful, lie, untrustworthy, especially with the vulnerable and elderly, I wouldnt trust them with money. Disingenuous, unreachable, pretending and making things are far more involved than they are, take years without finalising a simple estate of c. 3 bank accounts, 5 lots of shares and half a house, offensive, mocking to the poor and disabled, fail to make reasonable adjustments, send unreadably faint copies, send unnecessary correspondence, incur huge unnecessary costs, give bad advice in their own interest, bullying and threaten the client if complain, greedy, work out how to try and take all the money, don't act in the interests of the estate, executors or heirs. Ignore you and solicitors you hire to keep them in check until threatened by Legal Ombudsman. Don't give regular bill updates, work position updates, lie to client and those they come into contact with alike. Deliberately create false impressions, only interested in their own bill. Pretend things are complicated and try and make them so, create problems for the clients/executors/heirs. Arrogant. Callous. Careless billing and estate accounts involving large sums and small. Have to ask anybody they can think of how to do or about jobs, large or small. They claim to becexperts. Always having expensive meetings or are preparing or considering maybe 5 times an email and maybe not even send it. Failure to maintain and protect the property, failure to ensure it is insured properly, failure to turn the water off, burst pipe/s for weeks maybe. Failure to maintain the gardens. Failure to reimburse legitimate expenses, promises made and not kept, failure to address complaints. We couldn't even get a response after months ofvtrying until the Legal Ombudsman was threatened. You need another firm if you can find a decent one to keep an eye on them. Even a building society was shocked it couldn't trust a solicitor and said it must be able to. Holding on to monies itvreceived in error despite requests and failing to address the Theft Act, 1968 complaint. Failing tocaccount for about £10,000 discrepancy in reports in the client account. Destroyed incriminating old files when they were requested. Pretended to heir and executor they may not know about non existent new will, may have been removed as executor and heir. Refused to hand over will, codicil at all. Lodged a caveat merely to frustrate a simple, honest probate to favour their fees and pretend it favoured their client Took years before they applied then denied they had any knowledge of having obtained probate when several earlier entries show up in their bill about receiving it and receiving notice. Told me to make urgent application to court myself to get it passed! Generally unworthy of the job in my experience of decades. Approached a court in secret, failing to use resolution arrived at by clients. Got themselves appointed through a court via other solicitors half way through so can't be sacked. Dealing with them is like being impaled on railings you cant get off while they bled you dry and you freeze and starve and cant afford to turn on your oxygen machine. Seems to function more as a girls' chat room and meeting place than a proper solicitors and I have worked for some of the best. Still unfinished being bled dry, sleepless nights after 2 1/2 years. SRA a sham and disgrace so far yet a court, a judge and a representative from the LO said they were there to make a complaint to. Head of firm Elizabeth Armstrong thrilled at the amount of their bill and the behaviour/performance and the wayNstalie Palmer and Nicola Johnston conducted themselves when I finally got someone to stop ignoring all my complaints, which she admitted were numerous and no record of dealing with. She said Nicola Johnston told her she had rung me up. She did, once, but refused to discuss the complaint, she was only ringing about a tiny matter (clocking up the bill?) She was so often away on annual leave, worked part time, and emailed had been asked to use post) just before closing or holidays or weekends and couldn't be reached if you rang immediately. Invented problems and work not in the interests ofvtge estate, waffled, seemedvtobtry andvinveigle others to their ways. Withhold documents and your legitimate expenses, fail to pay estate debts promptly. Mislead people, clients, heirs, people they are dealing with. Pretend they have been in touch. Ignore clients, heirs, executors. Very inventive working. Vindictive if you complain.

Dealt with Martin who was recommended by a professional in the property market. Poor attitude, condescending and the whole very unprofessional. To top it off, when the buying of our new property fell through, Martin told us he would contact the sellers solicitor to confirm the purchase was not happening, Martin did not bother to contact the sellers solicitor and the poor sellers had started preparing for their new purchase. Absolutely disgraceful from a professional in his field. I would avoid this person in particular.