raydensolicitors.co.uk Anmeldelser 34

absolutely ripped the ass out of the fees, i work in professional services myself, i would avoid Raydens at all costs!!!

I instructed the Hampstead branch and worked with a partner (Jennifer Moore) and junior solicitors. The firm was aware from the outset that I was working within a limited budget. After the instruction, fees increased, and the solicitor assigned to my case was replaced by a more senior one, which significantly increased my costs.

In my experience, the partner on the matter was frequently unavailable, resulting in delays and a heavy reliance on junior staff with limited supervision. I did not receive clear or proactive strategic advice and often had to research issues myself and ask specific questions to understand the implications of decisions being made.

Errors occurred when matters were not closely monitored, which then required additional chargeable work to correct. Some of these issues had lasting negative consequences for my case. I was repeatedly advised that certain steps would be quicker or more cost-effective, only to be told later that this was not possible.

I requested interim financial relief (MPS/LSPO) at the very beginning, yet it took around five months with no clear explanation. By that point, I was financially exhausted and in debt. Costs consistently exceeded estimates, and there was limited tangible progress relative to the fees incurred.

At one stage, the firm was unaware of a scheduled court date and instead arranged a private FDR shortly beforehand, stating it would be faster. I was not properly advised on how binding certain agreements would be, which left me locked into an outcome that was later difficult to challenge due to vague drafting.

The entire LSPO budget was exhausted before the work was completed, and shortly after I raised concerns, the firm terminated the retainer.

Overall, I felt the service I received did not justify the cost, particularly given my circumstances at the time. Based on my experience, I would strongly advise others to carefully consider alternative firms before instructing this one.

Also, I would strongly encourage anyone who is dissatisfied with their experience to raise concerns with the Legal Ombudsman.

As a reply to Rayden’s reply: They were already provided a long detailed list of feedback, and as a reply, they said they’re satisfied with the service they provided and the result achieved and they terminated the retainer due to criticism without finalising the process. 50/50 is not a result to achieve but where the negotiation starts (and I was the disadvantaged party with a strong case) and I’ve spent more than £90k and wasted more than a year. So, unless they intend to improve, I believe the public should be aware. That’s why I wrote this comment. I never wish for anyone else to experience this.

I really cannot recommend this firm. I dealt with one of their people (Partner and Financial Arbitrator) on a family law case. From mid-April to July, they charged me over £31,500. Not a high value case and no court appearances, though there was a read in fee (increased after leaving their offices) and arbitration directions hearing of a few hours. Every month, the invoice was way over what they had estimated (2-3 times higher). I instructed them to submit an offer to try and resolve things and the partner got so many details wrong in the draft letter (ownership of assets, our ages, my proposed distribution of assets etc.) I was left wondering if it was him who actually drafted it, even though I was clearly paying his rates. After the directions hearing I had to question him on his advice because he still had key dates wrong. His explanation was that he was dictating it without the necessary paperwork in front of him. So I have to pay +£300 an hour for a guy who gets this much wrong?! They wanted to spend a week working on the s25 statements, which I knew would be another £18,000+ before even getting to arbitration. I had to tell them to stop EVERYTHING just to get a hold on the charges and they still continued to try and do stuff and charge me for it. When I dismissed them, a full lever arch file full of papers (correspondence etc.) which I brought with me at the time of instruction, had been disposed of without my consent. Complaint copied to the senior partner who carries the name of the company - no response. My honest advice would be don’t go there and if you are there and scratching your head about the rates, leave straight away. I am wondering if there are ex-employees of this company who would have a few things to say. Update after posting: The response from Raydens is definitely telling….there is no doubt I complained very loudly about the charges, the mistakes and disposing of my physical file, with the most senior partner in copy. I am not sure if they only regard it as a complaint if the ombudsman gets involved.

My experience with this firm was excellent. I worked with with Nusrat and Ashley at the Tower Bridge site. They was reassuring, professional and extraordinarily competent in dealing with my financial remedy case. Costs and timeframes were transparent from the get go, they were accurate and resolution was achieved quickly.

I was an emotional mess when I initially engaged Rayden but their kindness really made the difference. Nusrat especially was very supportive, she showed compassion and kept me informed throughout.

I can’t recommend them enough.

Stuart Clark & Sara Roddis have supported with the legal aspect of my separation from a former partner and secured an outcome that I'm very pleased with.
I was very impressed with the structure and strength of their communications to the other party. They were assertive and persistent to chase where responses weren’t received, they were clear on topics and pulled references from earlier comms to push progress when the other party tried to lean in other directions. All I can say is that I was relieved to have Stuart and Sara on my side as I would have felt very intimidated being on the receiving end of their communications.
I didn’t have any concerns with the quality of how they managed my case and if I had any required clarity the team were available to respond via email or phone all enabled PA Katy Harper was brilliant.
If I could roll back time and sit with the decision of who to select to support my case I would turn to Stuart & Sara without question and from my experience they have my recommendation.
I wont comment on financial aspects as I don’t have any experience with any other firm as to how they structure time charges.

I recently used this company to assist with a property financial settlement with my ex partner. The whole team were extremely efficient and professional and kept me informed of every step of the process. It was Lehna and Emily at the St Albans Branch that were dealing with my case and I really felt they listened to what I wanted to say and understood as they included every detail in their correspondence and we reached a satisfactory outcome.
I am surprised to see some negative reviews on here regarding the payments as they advise clients in advance verbally and in writing, of what the expected costs will be and like other companies, request payment in advance, but refund any surplus, which is what they did for me and I was happy to pay for their expertise and time.
I would thoroughly recommend this company, would use them again and am very satisfied and happy with the work they did for me.

Mega RIP OFF!!
- In transparent charging practices: they will charge you over 200 GBP just for an email expressing when they are going on vacation
- They were not very good at explaining how the law procedures work in the UK. Being from a foreign company I had to do the research myself as the information I was receiving from them was very confusing.
- During the calls, they will just a lot of pointless questions that were not relevant for my case. Afterwards you received a very detailed questionnaire that you must filled out, NOT personalized service.
- They tried to create animosity between my expartner and me just to be able to charge me more and more.
- The Consent Oder and form D81 presented contained MANY errors and was not even presentable.
- They continue charging me even when I told them to STOP their services.

Predatory litigators who encourage litigation for no reason that to increase costs. I was not the client in a divorce. There assets between us were at most £280k, yet they managed to refuse any attempt to resolve this throught an out of court disposal and simply ran up costs for my gulliable ex partner. The legal advice I received was it is simply not worth litigating and it could be resolved in one day if sense prevailed. I know my ex partner is sensible, so the only explanation for these huge costs, which were projected to be £50k if the case went to a final hearing, is their poor advice to their client.
They made pointless unfounded claims to assets which were dismissed by the judge. Asked so many pointless questions which they absolutely would have known would yield no useful results. Their barrister was interupted by two judges because she made stupid submissions that were not relevant.
Don't waste your money on these leeches.
In short this cost my ex partner about £40k and took a year longer than necessary, what a waste of money for a divorce that was obviously going to be 50/50 all the long.

Having made a previous complaint about this firm and now as my divorce has concluded I can reflect in detail about the pitfalls of using Raydens. I was not their client my ex was - I would not have made that mistake of retaining this firm in the first instance, to be succinct in my review this covers several areas

Firstly they coerced information out of my bank under false pretences and gave personal details to solicit information they were not entitled to this issue is ongoing with Lloyds bank and is sharp cowboy practices which are unlawful.
Secondly one of their solicitors by the name of Mr Stuart Clarke invited me to commit tax evasion to accommodate their clients wishes , You can’t actually make it up - that gives you some insight into the level and quality of the legal representation one can expect from this firm with no idea or concept of ownership of assets and walking feet first into areas they know nothing about in a bid to serve their client who was throwing money at them.
It has to be said from my perspective they compromised their professional integrity and would bend over backwards for their client - crass and unprofessional because he was able to buy them to act like this as his case was being funded by a multi millionaire .
The staff change every five minutes each week there was a new trainee solicitor thrown in at the deep end or appearing in court as part of an extended team ,in the end a senior family court judge slated their actions and behaviour in correspondence way to damning and embarrassing to repeat here but to put it mildly he alluded to the fact that their behaviour was unprofessional and unhelpful and he was not impressed with what he was seeing , Raydens gives the industry a bad name his comments support that - and in the end my ex spent 450,000 or thereabouts and walked away without a single brick from our property portfolio - not exactly a great result for him, he tried to appeal and that was thrown out - it proves that compromising your professional integrity has a price and by the looks of things with all the other negative reviews in this site - that price is being paid.
The compliance dept of Raydens will do their best to clean up the mess and review with some uncreative generic response which won’t hold any weight - my advice to anyone reading this is to go to Manchester rates are half what you will pay in London & Home Counties and you will get a partner so better quality advice at half the price.

I wish I had read these terrible reviews before contacting this company. My solicitor was David Lister, who over the phone sounded very knowledgeable, making me feel like I was in capable hands. Sadly, in an initial meeting to follow, he charged me for his time, and then proceeded to give me the wrong advice (I found this out after our meeting), and subsequently found a much better solicitor elsewhere. In our face-to-face meeting, I found David quite condescending, that he was not at all interested in me as a person, and I found him to be quite machismo. I felt sorry for the young female solicitor (in training) who was sitting in on our meeting, as she was obviously wanting to help, but was powerless to do so. David kept talking over her, rudely interrupting her and I had a feeling from our meeting he was not the solicitor I needed. At a time when I was feeling quite vulnerable, the last thing I needed, was to be shafted by this firm. I have read Rayden's replies to these reviews in an attempt to vilify themselves. I'm sorry, however you try and excuse your solicitor's behaviour, you cannot vilify for my opinion on this.

I really cannot recommend this firm. I dealt with one of their people (Partner and Financial Arbitrator) on a family law case. From mid-April to July 2022, they charged me over £31,500. Not a high value case and no court appearances, though there was a read in fee (increased after leaving their offices) and arbitration directions hearing of a few hours. Every month, the invoice was way over what they had estimated (2-3 times higher). I instructed them to submit an offer to try and resolve things and the partner got so many details wrong in the draft letter (ownership of assets, our ages, my proposed distribution of assets etc.) I was left wondering if it was him who actually drafted it, even though I was clearly paying his rates. After the directions hearing I had to question him on his advice because he still had key dates wrong. His explanation was that he was dictating it without the necessary paperwork in front of him. So I have to pay +£300 an hour for a guy who gets this much wrong?! They wanted to spend a week working on the s25 statements, which I knew would be another £18,000+ before even getting to arbitration. I had to tell them to stop EVERYTHING just to get a hold on the charges and they still continued to try and do stuff and charge me for it. When I dismissed them in September 2022, a full lever arch file full of papers (correspondence etc.) which I brought with me at the time of instruction, had been disposed of without my consent. Complaint copied to the senior partner who carries the name of the company - no response. My honest advice would be don’t go there and if you are there and scratching your head about the rates, leave straight away. I am wondering if there are ex employees of this company who would have a few things to say. Update after posting: The response form Raydens is definitely telling….there is no doubt I complained very loudly about the charges, the mistakes and disposing of my physical file, with the most senior partner in copy. I am not sure if they only regard it as a complaint if the ombudsman gets involved.

I went to these solicitors to help with my upcoming divorce. They emailed a complete stranger all my personal details and my (ex)husbands details. Initially they tried to lightly dismiss the issue, but then the reality sunk in of this data breach. In a nutshell, these solicitors are exceptionally unprofessional. They are cheaper than other companies, however, you will pay for their stupidity in the long run. Don't do it!

All firms have good and bad. My experience was with the Hampstead branch and it was bad...very bad. Overcharged massively (ongoing dispute) , really poor advice that cost me dearly and a very arrogant approach taken when I complained. In the middle of a divorce the last thing I needed was an incompetent, untrustworthy solicitor. I believe some of the staff are of a good quality but my experience was simply awful. I have since found a much more effective expert solicitor...and she's significantly cheaper!