Jess Hodgkiss
⭐️☆☆☆☆ Appalling Conduct: Vulnerable Clients Abandoned Mid-Litigation I urge the public—especially families with vulnerable relatives—to exercise extreme caution before instructing High Legal Services Ltd (Accrington). This small consumer practice took on a complex utility infrastructure dispute that they lacked the specialist competence to handle, and their conduct deteriorated entirely once we demanded data transparency: * **Evasion of Statutory Audits:** When we served this firm with a formal Subject Access Request (SAR) to audit their file handling and billing, they weaponised a purported mental capacity claim to evade it. Instead of complying with data protection laws, their non-solicitor Practice Manager sent a defensive email unilaterally declaring that my vulnerable father "lacked capacity" to obstruct the statutory audit. * **Mid-Proceedings Abandonment:** After making this unverified capacity claim, the firm immediately stated they were coming off the court record and abandoning active claims. They walked away with zero structured handover, leaving an elderly client completely exposed to missed court deadlines. * **Conflicting Financial Motivations:** While dropping my father’s private court claims under the guise of "capacity," the firm simultaneously attempted to keep our wider South West Water file active under a lucrative £100,000 Direct Line insurance expenses. A firm cannot legally claim a client lacks capacity to instruct them on private files while continuing to act on an insurance-backed file solely to protect their billing stream. * **Failure to Pursue Critical Remedies:** Because the firm operates largely as a consumer generalist practice, they missed the primary root cause of our legal losses. They completely failed to launch a critical Wasted Costs Application (Form N244) against our previous negligent solicitors, forcing us as lay clients to forensically investigate and file the court applications independently to mitigate a £130,000+ loss. This firm relies on intimidation and corporate "zero-tolerance" buzzwords to silence clients who demand basic accountability. Their actions have been formally reported to both the **Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)** for severe breaches of integrity and professional standards, and to **Direct Line Group** for an urgent insurance compliance review. Do not trust them with your family’s assets.