Shakespeare Martineau Reviews 

Absolutely awful service from Claire,
I have already lost one buyer because she doesn’t respond to my solicitor & now I am in the same position again six months down the line as again she doesn’t respond to emails or telephone calls.
If I or anyone else didn’t do our job properly we wouldn’t be employed.
Disgraceful service

I instructed Shakespeare Martineau on a property transaction. It was a little unusual, but by no means complicated. It was dealt with by a partner in the residential property team. Unfortunately, his work was careless and problematic in several respects. He did complete the work, which is why I give two stars not one, but the experience was unsatisfactory. I later complained to the senior partner of the firm in the hope that others wouldn’t suffer from similar problems. The firm took 5 months to reply, inadequately. I assume the delay was because they’re inundated with complaints from unhappy clients.

A truly awful law firm who I have had the displeasure of having to interact with over the past few months. They have apparently been appointed by OVO, to seek the debit of someone with a similar name to mine, accusing me of living at an address in a location I have never lived in. They either need someone else with this name, or someone gave this name fraudulently. To my knowledge no vetting or verification of someone's name or identity is done. They have incorrectly and unethical tracked me down and started accusing and harassing me. I have spent hours, providing all kinds of evidence I have never lived in the location, it is not my debit. This includes signed documents from my local council, and letters from HMRC to name a few. Despite this, this awful firm, continue to haress me. I cant believe this is allowed to happen, and given my interactions and their conduct, I am surprised they are allowed to practice

Absolute joke of a company. Some person ran up a bill with UPS and gave a company name similar to ours. UPS instructed this Shakespeare to recover the money outstanding and without properly checking the evidence just opened court proceedings against us even though we have never dealt with UPS. I called them and done the searches they should have done to find the proper person (which took me about 10 minutes) using Google but they continued with court proceedings and ended up costing us money for a solicitor to sort out.

They are expensive. Joanne was very thorough. You have to pay to get this quality. You could pay half and get a Will that did not address all the possibilities and turned out to be deficient so costing more in the end. We cannot thank her enough

Heart sank when I read the Trustpilot reviews, after SM intervened on behalf of the SRA when the solicitor we were using closed. Hoped the reviews would be proven wrong. They were not. Completely useless, directly contradictory advice from different members of the team - really feel like they try to make things as confusing as possible so you give up. Avoid at all costs.

What is this company. Sent me ccj for ovo didn’t respond in time to my claim form so started demanding payment in full. So I took it back to court and showed all my proof and won against them and paying on my terms not theirs. Then today I receive a email threatening further action as the haven’t received payment. But on my side I have proof I sent it the 12/1. So guys be warned keep proof of everything these are a shambles to deal with

Recieved a letter for someone else who Ive never met before, but addressed to my address, albeit just the first line and postcode, so not even my full address, saying this other person owes them money and bailiffs will be sent round etc etc. Reeks of a scam company.

Incompetent and useless law firm. Make sure you stay away from them as their staff display psychopathic traits.

These people are complete scammers!!! They breached all provisions of GDPR rules, they harass people over a debt that does not belong to the person they are chasing and failed to explain who they are actually chasing.

I have been dealing with Shakespeare Martineau regarding a County Court Judgment (CCJ) that was wrongly issued in my name, linked to an OVO Energy account that OVO themselves have confirmed was opened in error (a duplicate “search and seize” account).

For over 28 days, I have been requesting copies of the documentation used to obtain the CCJ, yet Shakespeare Martineau have failed to provide anything. I have since reported the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for investigation due to serious concerns about their conduct and compliance with the pre-action protocol.

This has been one of the most distressing and exhausting experiences I’ve ever faced — affecting my credit rating, my mortgage application, and my peace of mind. I even had to seek assistance from my MP to get some form of accountability.

Instead of transparency or empathy, I have faced delays, deflection, and complete disregard for due process. I am now having to apply for an N244 set-aside order to correct a judgment that should never have existed in the first place.

Absolutely unacceptable from a firm of solicitors who should know better.

They asking money from ovo energy never had contact with them my electricity meter was pay as you top up the key what it’s going on i asked them for the date and what meter they want the money from. Very very rude they have no explanation but demanding payment

Got hit with a County Court Judgment from Shakespeare Martineau acting for OVO Energy — even though my OVO account was in credit and still under an active dispute with the Energy Ombudsman.

Later found out OVO had actually created two accounts in my name and were billing the wrong one while my payments went to the closed account. OVO’s now admitted it was their mistake and even sent me a refund cheque.

Meanwhile Shakespeare still pushed the court claim through, damaging my credit and costing me time and stress. I’ve since had to involve both the Energy Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority to get it fixed.

If you ever get contacted by them — double-check everything. Don’t just assume they’ve got their facts right.

Hopefully they review how they handle these cases because no one should have to go through this for a company’s accounting error.

They do not deserve one star… my advice is if your debt has been handed to Shakespearemartineau get yourself a legal representative or contact step change asap. The type of people who work for this company has no good intention for you they are not there to help you set up a affordable plan they are there to make money by threatening and bullying vulnerable people into paying more than they can afford, I have been told over the phone “we are not here to help you our job is to help our client” absolutely horrendous yes your job is to chase clients debt but more importantly your duty as a human being is to help other human beings to the best of your ability. What a soul destroying job this must be I wonder if they log off and feel they have done something good by bullying the average person on behalf of multi million pound companies over minuscule amounts of debt. My case is i have a gas debt from a previous supplier I set up a payment amount for 5£ per month which was agreed via email, i suffered a pulmonary embolism and was rushed to hospital for the life threatening condition, therefore no payment or contact made for a month. Shakespeare took it upon themselves instead of contacting me to chase up via phone or email they have CCJd me and are requesting me to pay a minimum amount of 90£ per month for a couple grand gas bill for a property i lived in 3 years ago, provided them my budget and broke down my outgoing and I am not even left with 50£ at the end of the month, they still refused my payment offers even when I went up to 20£ I have a DMP in place with step change and other debters have accepted offers from 1-20£ per month due to my circumstances I am a vulnerable adult I suffer with depression. And anxiety and I advised Shakespeare of this yet I feel there call handlers have not followed handle with care procedure instead they have countered by 20£ offer and basically said you pay 40£ per month or we send balliffs due to my mental health worry stress I haven’t been eating nor sleeping due to this worry I have previously been burgled and stabbed and I was so scared of these balliffs turning up at my door and me going on a mental break down I agreed to this amount. And since have been borrowing money and getting myself into more debt with family and friend this past months to try to pay this. I have emailed them and asked if this can be reviewed and even if they can lower to 25£ but have been told no I have to pay the 40£ no mention of has my circumstances changed no advice of where to go next my step change DMP advisor was the one who told me about the n244 form which you send to court with a break down of budget and what you can afford… again not mentioned by Shakespeare simply fear mongering YOU HAVE TO PAY THIS AMOUNT OR BALLIFFS WILL TURN UP AND WE ARE NOT BUDGING. How can you expect somebody to pay for what they cannot afford I have shown you I am in -1000 overdraft I am in deficit at end of month and I have provided them with screenshots and evidence regarding my budget my bank statements my health conditions yet you still force me to pay more than I can afford. Surely this cannot be correct process I have raised a complaint and I will be contacting the legal ombudsman moving forward as I feel I must do something so the next person doesn’t get bullied into paying something they cannot afford. I work for a energy company and if my customer calls in regarding there debt I set up a plan they can afford I put there account on hold if not and advise them as to the best steps moving forward , I emailed them on 30/09/25 “hello I can't afford 40£ per month I am struggling and would like to lower the amount to 25£ per month how can I go about doing this please thanks.” And this is the reply received today.. Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, upon detailed review the payment plan has been arranged with yourself would remain as per client instruction.

Many thanks,

Again they are not here to help you in anyway as you can see with my situation I prayer nobody ever has to deal with this company 🙏

Paid a debt off in full, letter sent to say we hadn't paid so emails back & forth to show we had & guess what not even a reply to say sorry we made a mistake but yet quick enough to chase, awful company DO NOT USE

UPDATE - DID YOU READ THE REVIEW AS I HAVE REZCHED OUT & SEND NUMEROUS EMAILS BUT YOU DONT REPLY

A minute ago
Hello, we're sorry to hear about your experience. We'd like the opportunity to look into this for you. Please reach out to us directly at so we can help resolve the issue. Thank you.

So it's a very run of the mill kinda product poorly designed and I'm afraid poorly made.
I had it for a few months and the oring failed, I contacted them and they just lied to me about not having rings available even though they were available on there website at the time. This continued untill my warranty expired.
Basic product, with a terrible customer service backing it I'd stay If I was you

Similar experience to others. Sent me a letter before claim for late filing, I paid it the day I got the letter. Next thing, i get notification that I owe court costs, despite already paying the amount due, before the court date. They won't reply to my emails and threatened me with a ccj, unless I paid the court costs. This can't be legal. It's not my fault they are incompetent and don't allocate payments to accounts. If they didn't check and attended court, it's their own costs to bear, not mine. I'm seeking legal advice now.

Good rapport with the team, friendly, helpful and proactive.

If I had my way I would not even give them one star. I have an outstanding debt that I thought my ex-lan lady was paying with OVO energy. I have tried to set up a payment plan for a 12-month period and then for it to be reassessed but all I get is threatening emails and forms to fill in about court. As a person that is suffering from mental health issues, depression, anxiety, I find this very difficult and the company are not supportive at all. If I didn't have the backing and supports of my loving wife, the situation like this could spiral and take me to take drastic action against myself. Why is it that I'm just being cast aside and threatened? I have offered a payment a monthly payment plan but it falls on deaf ears because it is at the claim process. Yes, I've been trying to set a payment plan up for weeks now.
It's very distressing. And I am unsure where to go with this now. Graeme Barrett

They sent me an extremely threatening letter promising court proceedings, warrants of execution, county court judgement, etc... etc on the behalf of their client Enterprise for a car scrape just outside Heathrow. I had already paid it back in January after hiring a car that tried to kill me.