Melanie Lazarus & Co Solicitors Limited

Only interested in her own financial gain. Advised me incorrectly. Overcharged me.
Only got to decree nisei stage, no young children or property to sort out. Terrible!

Merely put her own financial interest over mine.

I instructed Ms Lazarus to deal with divorce related finances and made my wish for mediation and a prompt and amicable settlement most clear. Highly distressed Ms Lazarus recommended I attend counselling. She made no attempt whatsoever to try to keep me out of court (where I eventually ended up) as she catagorically refused to put offers to settle to my then husband as he had not provided his pension information. At a hearing I desperately tried to avoid the judge severely criticised Ms Lazarus for her failure to try to obtain them. Ms Lazarus ignored a court order to try to agree a value of a matrimonial property and instead instructed a very expensive chartered surveyor which resulted in massive (unnecessary) costs to me and my then husband. She had her receptionist make calls and charged me her hourly rate (ie £240) each time she did so even though her regulator stipulates dispursements must be charged to clients at the actual cost. She subjected me to a cost of over a £1000 by booking a barrister for a court hearing she eventually informed me was ‘very much a paperwork exercise’. She insisted I attend her office to go through a simple form I could easily have checked at home affording her another opportunity to hike up her bill. She was instructed to merely send my then husband’s solicitor a USB stick yet she unnecessarily transcripted the entire contents of it before telling me she did not think it was a good idea to send it (charge for a completely unnecessary exercise £360). When I told her I had no money she suggested I approach my 76 year old mother to continue paying her fees. My mother was battling cancer and undergoing gruelling chemotherapy when Ms Lazarus made her suggestion. Ms Lazarus was aware of my mother’s illness. Ms Lazarus caused me unbelievable distress with her refusal to try to settle out of court and the fees she continued to rack up such as £24 for letters that were necessary to sort out her errors and £24 for one line emails. When I told Ms Lazarus I intended seeing another solicitor she resigned and charged me £24 for her letter doing so. To add insult to injury she then refused to give me my files on the day she agreed to as her final bill could not be paid owing to the fact she gave me the wrong figure. Every part of my dealings with Ms Lazarus were stressful and where she took every opportunity to run up my bill and did nothing to try to keep me out of court even though she has a professional duty to try to keep her clients out of court. Despite her impressive claims on her website Ms Lazarus has thus so far failed to substantiate them and the Legal 500 (who keep a list of the best solicitors and firms) confirmed she is definitely not on their list nor is her firm. On a positive note Ms Lazarus went some way to acknowledging the appalling way she managed my affairs and offered to pay me £1000. I have now passed the matter to The Legal Ombudsman who I hope will order a full refund of all the £9000 (ish) fees I paid her which was a complete waste of money and where she was the only one to benefit from her refusal to try to settle out of court. I am further hopeful the Legal Ombudsman will order her to pay further compensation for her failures including another large bill it was necessary for me to incur when I had to employ another solicitor who said they considered ‘Ms Lazarus had severly predjudiced my position. I am of the opinion Ms Lazarus is a disgrace to the legal profession and where her agenda is to benefit from the distress of those who go to her for assistance at a very emotional time. It is my view Ms Lazarus capitalised on my misery and unfortunate circumstances with her disingenuous sympathy to feather her own nest to the extreme financial and emotional detriment of her client. May she hang her immoral head in utter shame.