Slee Blackwell Reviews 

Joanna helped guide us through the purchase of our first home and we couldn’t be more thankful for that. We would recommend to anyone that asks.

I work with Kirsty on so many transactions and I can honestly say she is the best.... ever!
All transactions with her are made easy, quick and you can always get hold of her.
I wouldn't want to work with anyone else and advise all my clients to use her every time!

I had an excellent experience with my conveyancing solicitor Joanna throughout the entire property transaction. She was professional, knowledgeable, and highly responsive, keeping me and my partner informed at every stage of the process. Any questions or concerns were dealt with promptly and clearly, which made what can often be a stressful experience much smoother.

Joanna's attention to detail and efficiency helped ensure everything progressed as quickly as possible, and I always felt confident that my case was being handled with care. I would not hesitate to recommend Joanna's services to anyone looking for a reliable and trustworthy conveyancing solicitor. Thank you for all your hard work and support.

Jen Law was invaluable in dealing with problems arising from a recent family issue. She dealt with a delicate situation with patience and tact and was instrumental in securing the desired outcome and resolution to the situation. I would recommend the entire Family Department as they are able to deal with any and all issues that may arise in relation to divorce and childcare.

Slee Blackwell did mine and my husbands, Wills, LPA’s and all our conveyancing.

I would highly recommend this firm.

Very professional and prompt

Anya Hoyland Slee Blackwell has been amazing always keeping me updated and ready to answer any questions i might of had, Her advice has been clear and although this has been a long case she has been there to support me all the way Thank you

We had a very good experience using Slee Blackwell during the process of buying and selling our house. Liam and his team were extremely helpful and responsive to any of my queries.

Jasmine supported me through my whole claim and managed to achieve a fantastic outcome for me, for which I will always be grateful. She kept me informed throughout the whole process, gave me informed options and allowed me time to process all the information. She has been fantastic in fighting for me, and sensitive to an extremely traumatic time. I would 100% recommend her and her team!!

Kirsty Jones at Slee Blackwell Solicitors (Barnstaple) for conveyancing.

Absolutely brilliant service – went above and beyond to save our chain! We wanted to leave this review to say a huge thank you to Kirsty Jones, her assistant Lauren,Sue and everyone at the firm for the incredible help and support they gave us during our recent house sale and purchase. From day one, Kirsty was professional, knowledgeable, and always quick to respond to any questions we had. Lauren and Sue were also fantastic – keeping us regularly updated and making sure nothing slipped through the net. We used Kirsty Jones and her team for both our house sale and the purchase of the property we moved into. Most notably, the week before the agreed date to exchange contracts, the buyers solicitor, also used Slee Blackwell but the Braunton branch ,went on holiday. This directly threatened our agreed exchange date and would have caused everything to stall, putting our whole chain at risk. However, true to form, Kirsty stepped straight in – sending a colleague to the Braunton branch to take over the workload and keep everything moving forward. In short: 0/10 for their solicitor, but a solid 10/10 for Kirsty! Add to this, Kirsty and her team completely made up for the slow, unhelpful involvement we had from our estate agent. The agent let things drag, didn’t communicate and brought nothing but problems and unresolved issues to us, while Kirsty was proactive, reliable, and determined to get the job done. We cannot recommend Kirsty Jones, Lauren and Sue highly enough. If you want conveyancing handled properly, with people who will go the extra mile when it matters most, look no further. Thank you again!

We cannot fault the service that we have received from Jen and the Slee Blackwell team. Her communication was prompt and supportive, and her advice was clear despite the complexities of a lengthy 'Fit to Plead' case. We are deeply grateful for Jen's careful and friendly guidance.

Advertise as the Best Solicitors in North Devon. The others must be really dire. Sent an enquiry via their website and got no reply.

Our case was handed over to a second person and thy have been so helpful in getting all the paperwork in order for submission for Probate. Macauley was terrific, explained everything to us and the process was completed much more quickly than we expected.

We had no choice but to use this firm as they were appointed executors, and unfortunately our experience was extremely poor from start to finish.

What should have been a straightforward probate process took 16 months to complete. During that time, we dealt with four different solicitors due to staff leaving the practice or going on maternity leave, resulting in a complete lack of continuity and communication.

Emails were rarely answered, phone calls were seldom returned, and we were repeatedly left chasing for updates. As professional people ourselves, we found the level of service completely unacceptable and far below what we would expect from any professional organisation.

There were also mistakes made in documentation and in the final billing, which only added further stress to an already difficult process. We also received poor advice at several stages.

The overall experience felt disorganised, inefficient, and unprofessional. Because probate fees are taken directly from estate funds they hold, it often felt as though there was little incentive to provide good client service or maintain proper communication.

We would not recommend this firm based on our experience.

COSTS – DATA HARVESTERS, NOT LAWYERS
Company: Slee Blackwell / Helpline: Professional Negligence

I am writing this review to warn everyone — do NOT use this company. They are not regulated solicitors, they are a claims management company whose entire business model is to collect all your private information, documents, evidence and hard work, then reject your case using false legal arguments, just to waste your time.

This is exactly what they did to me:

1. Pretended to be helpful experts – At first, they were very friendly, asked for everything: every invoice, every report, every photo, every quote, every detail of your situation. You send them everything you have, thinking they are specialists who will actually help you.
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2. Collected ALL your data and evidence – Once they have absolutely everything you own, and know exactly how strong or weak your position is, their attitude changes completely. They have what they want, and they stop being helpful.
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3. Sent a generic, scripted rejection email with FALSE LEGAL ADVICE – They use the same made‑up arguments on everyone, even though they are wrong in law:
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- “It is always the buyer’s responsibility, not the solicitor’s” → THIS IS WRONG IN UK LAW. Solicitors have a strict legal duty to advise you, explain documents, warn you of risks and protect your interests — confirmed in the leading legal case Cottingham v Attey Bower & Jones (2000). This duty is even higher if you are vulnerable, elderly, or have special needs. For them to shift blame onto the client is disgraceful and legally incorrect.
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- “Legal defects or missing paperwork are only academic / don’t matter” → COMPLETELY FALSE. Missing certificates or legal issues mean the property is worth far less than you paid, is unsafe, and is hard or impossible to sell or mortgage properly. This is not a minor point — it is a huge financial loss and risk.
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4. They ignore serious misconduct – They completely ignore key facts that prove negligence or bad behaviour, such as documents being removed or hidden from your file. They don’t want to deal with anything that is not simple or guaranteed easy money.

The truth:
They are middlemen only. They take all your hard work and evidence, assess if it is 100% straightforward and risk‑free for them, and if it has any complexity at all, they reject you. They are NOT qualified to give legal advice, they are only registered as data handlers.

Do not waste weeks or months here. Go straight to a real, regulated specialist solicitor. They will actually fight for you, they understand the law properly, and they won’t trick you into giving them everything only to let you down.

This company is rated 2.4/5 for a reason — read the other reviews, it is the same story every time: “took all my info, then rejected with rubbish reasons”.

BEWARE — STAY AWAY.

This firm is absolute garbage they drop your case just like that. It’s evil and disgusting my suggestion is do not waste your time with this firm seriously save yourself the heartache

I approached this firm to confirm if they had the capacity to accept new instructions. I was initially told they dia, but only after they insisted on collecting my personal data. Once my details were provided, the firm immediately reversed their position, claiming they had no capacity.
Furthermore, I found it highly irregular and unprofessional that the communications I received lacked any formal signature or identifying details of the individual handling my enquiry. Sending anonymous correspondence is bizarre for a legal practice and fails to meet the basic standards of professional accountability and transparency.

James McNally and Katie Sheasby were very kind and genuine dealing with a very sad personal injury claim involving the loss of my dog, it took 4 years but justice was served, thank you , I would recommend them , trust the process , thank you both for your kindness and compassion through out

Very poor first impression. I received a callback from their Tiverton office after an initial email enquiry. I asked a simple question about whether they offered a free initial consultation, and the person I spoke to was abrupt and dismissive. She said “no” with no explanation, followed by silence, making me feel uncomfortable. When I ended the call politely, she put the phone down on me. When I called back to highlight how rude this was, she incorrectly claimed I had hung up.

For important matters like probate, basic courtesy and professionalism should be expected. Based on this experience, I would not feel comfortable using this firm.

After my first review, they provided a grossly inaccurate reply. They did not provide me with any advice on challenging or not challenging or will, not about any parallel part eight proceedings in the probate court. My settlement would have been bigger, they say, had I followed their advice; yet, they provided no advice in the manner to which they suggest. However, in truth, had they followed through on the actual advice to me that any debts, however incurred, by the other side or elsewhere would be taken into account as part of my settlement and the inheritance act claim, they failed to take this into account, or follow my instructions, and agreed to settlement at mediation by, I now learn, tricking me into believing the other side were going to satisfy the the debts on the condition, I would withdraw my appeal in the high court against the other side. I withdrew to my appeal as a result, and now learn the debt incurred was taken out of my settlement which is contrary to the actual advice they provided me; according to my understanding of the settlement agreement (of which I can see no agreement in this nature), and they refused to provide any explanation without paying them additional fee fees (presumably of their £810 per hour including uplift and VAT!). I now have evidence they provided me with around two minutes to read, understand and sign the elaborate settlement agreement consisting of several pages, having been provided to me at 8:14 pm, sent back to the other side via the mediator, signed by the other side and uploaded by them all by 8:20 pm, I.E.all within six minutes.

A more comprehensive response to their reply on my first review, is on the website ‘review solicitors’ which I would recommend reading before instructing this firm of solicitors, especially if you are needing contested probate advice.

Suffice it to say, other solicitors are now considering pursuing Slee Blackwell for professional misconduct.