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Revealed: The huge cover up of bad practices by leading law firms

Most people might expect a fake review of a new product, a Restaurant or a hotel included among the many posts on company websites..

A forensic investigation by the charity Blind Justice UK of reviews on leading law firms websites reveals this practice exists on an industrial scale with any critical review of the firm ruthlessly removed from the public domain. The chance of a faulty product, a poor meal or a bad night at a hotel pales into insignificance with the loss of money for the client when the law firm goes bust.

The Blind Justice investigation is comprehensive. It looked at 486 website reviews across 22 leading firms, all registered with the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, which should provide some protection for clients. Every single one was a five star review – not a single critical review existed.

It examined 14 firms that had a complaint history with the Legal Ombudsman in over five cases. Not one was recorded on the firm’s website.
It examined 70,507 Trustpilot reviews analysed across 14 firms and over 16,000 Review Solicitors cases ( more about them later).

One firm had 2,529 consecutive reviews with zero negative feedback across 1,687 days.

What is more disturbing is that three firms, PM Law, SSB Law and Axiom Ince went bust during this period owing clients over £300m between them – a not insubstantial sum – but you would have no early warning from their websites or from the Solicitors Regulation Authority that this was about to happen. The research records 35 reviews removed from PM Law’s profile while the firm was still trading and 7,500 PM Law reviews were no longer reachable through their original URLs. 54 SSB Law’s review count: frozen for five years through its entire collapse.

This has not happened by accident. I have been told of an organisation called Review Solicitors which is recognised by the the Solicitors Regulation Authority and can do all the work to disguise critical reviews for the law firms. I am told for a premium rate of £7000 a month – not too big for the largest firms which often have communication budgets of £1 million a year – all the criticism disappears.

The Review Solicitors platform integrates with law firm case management systems to send automated review invitations at matter close. Firms choose which clients receive an invitation. The platform’s own marketing states: “Not appropriate to send feedback to a client? Simply click a button.” This is review gating by design.

Negative reviews are held for up to 48 hours while the firm attempts to resolve the complaint. Positive reviews are published immediately.

Firms can immediately suspend any review they flag as defamatory or from a non-client. The review is removed first; investigation happens second. The reviewer has 14 days to confirm their identity or the review is permanently deleted. The party with the clearest commercial interest in removal decides whether removal is warranted.

Between 2018 and 2021, ReviewSolicitors quietly changed its ranking algorithm. In 2018, negative inputs included Legal Ombudsman rulings, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal rulings, and notifications that a firm had threatened legal action against a reviewer. By 2021, all negative inputs had been removed. The revised algorithm rewards size, volume, rating, recency, and “how the law firm has historically collected reviews.” The direction of change is uniform: away from consumer protection, toward commercial engagement.

Between 26 September 2024 and 13 December 2024, the published review count on PM Law’s primary ReviewSolicitors profile dropped from 794 to 759. That is a net loss of 35 reviews in 79 days. The count can only decrease if reviews are being removed. During that three-month window, more reviews were removed from the platform than were added.
While the count was falling, named reviewers were posting unmistakable warnings on the same platform: missed completion dates, unanswered communication, offices that had effectively stopped functioning. These are exactly the problems that materialised at scale when PM Law collapsed on 2 February 2026, with £39.5 million of client money missing.

sarah rapson ceo solicitors regulation authority

Blind Justice have this week also published an open letter to Sarah Rapson, Chief Executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, calling for an independent audit of the SRA’s complaint closure system. The charity’s accompanying briefing analyses seven years of the SRA’s own enforcement data and will be published in full on 3 June 2026.

Bust firm PM Law

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#law #news #PMLaw #sarahRapson #solicitorsRegulationAuthority

# contentMap.en
Revealed: The huge cover up of bad practices by leading law firms

Most people might expect a fake review of a new product, a Restaurant or a hotel included among the many posts on company websites..

A forensic investigation by the charity Blind Justice UK of reviews on leading law firms websites reveals this practice exists on an industrial scale with any critical review of the firm ruthlessly removed from the public domain. The chance of a faulty product, a poor meal or a bad night at a hotel pales into insignificance with the loss of money for the client when the law firm goes bust.

The Blind Justice investigation is comprehensive. It looked at 486 website reviews across 22 leading firms, all registered with the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, which should provide some protection for clients. Every single one was a five star review – not a single critical review existed.

It examined 14 firms that had a complaint history with the Legal Ombudsman in over five cases. Not one was recorded on the firm’s website.
It examined 70,507 Trustpilot reviews analysed across 14 firms and over 16,000 Review Solicitors cases ( more about them later).

One firm had 2,529 consecutive reviews with zero negative feedback across 1,687 days.

What is more disturbing is that three firms, PM Law, SSB Law and Axiom Ince went bust during this period owing clients over £300m between them – a not insubstantial sum – but you would have no early warning from their websites or from the Solicitors Regulation Authority that this was about to happen. The research records 35 reviews removed from PM Law’s profile while the firm was still trading and 7,500 PM Law reviews were no longer reachable through their original URLs. 54 SSB Law’s review count: frozen for five years through its entire collapse.

This has not happened by accident. I have been told of an organisation called Review Solicitors which is recognised by the the Solicitors Regulation Authority and can do all the work to disguise critical reviews for the law firms. I am told for a premium rate of £7000 a month – not too big for the largest firms which often have communication budgets of £1 million a year – all the criticism disappears.

The Review Solicitors platform integrates with law firm case management systems to send automated review invitations at matter close. Firms choose which clients receive an invitation. The platform’s own marketing states: “Not appropriate to send feedback to a client? Simply click a button.” This is review gating by design.

Negative reviews are held for up to 48 hours while the firm attempts to resolve the complaint. Positive reviews are published immediately.

Firms can immediately suspend any review they flag as defamatory or from a non-client. The review is removed first; investigation happens second. The reviewer has 14 days to confirm their identity or the review is permanently deleted. The party with the clearest commercial interest in removal decides whether removal is warranted.

Between 2018 and 2021, ReviewSolicitors quietly changed its ranking algorithm. In 2018, negative inputs included Legal Ombudsman rulings, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal rulings, and notifications that a firm had threatened legal action against a reviewer. By 2021, all negative inputs had been removed. The revised algorithm rewards size, volume, rating, recency, and “how the law firm has historically collected reviews.” The direction of change is uniform: away from consumer protection, toward commercial engagement.

Between 26 September 2024 and 13 December 2024, the published review count on PM Law’s primary ReviewSolicitors profile dropped from 794 to 759. That is a net loss of 35 reviews in 79 days. The count can only decrease if reviews are being removed. During that three-month window, more reviews were removed from the platform than were added.
While the count was falling, named reviewers were posting unmistakable warnings on the same platform: missed completion dates, unanswered communication, offices that had effectively stopped functioning. These are exactly the problems that materialised at scale when PM Law collapsed on 2 February 2026, with £39.5 million of client money missing.

sarah rapson ceo solicitors regulation authority

Blind Justice have this week also published an open letter to Sarah Rapson, Chief Executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, calling for an independent audit of the SRA’s complaint closure system. The charity’s accompanying briefing analyses seven years of the SRA’s own enforcement data and will be published in full on 3 June 2026.

Bust firm PM Law

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly

#law #news #PMLaw #sarahRapson #solicitorsRegulationAuthority