Axiom Ince intervention information

If you were a client of Axiom Ince, they can no longer act for you. You will need to find another lawyer to act. The intervention agents are not acting for you.

You can find a lawyer on the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor site, or by calling the Law Society on 020 7320 5650 Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00.

If you need a legal aid lawyer, you can find one on the Legal Aid Agency's site. If you have a live legal aid certificate, we can only send your file to another legal aid lawyer.

We have collected all clients’ files for ongoing transactions which were in the firms' offices at the time of the intervention.

If one of the firms have been acting for you on something which is ongoing and your file has been recovered, the intervention agents or we will write to tell you and ask where you want your file to be sent. That could be back to you, or to new legal representatives.

You or your new lawyer should let our intervention agents know quickly where you want your file to be sent as there might be important time limits. You or your new lawyer can let the intervention agents know by email.

You might be able to help your new solicitors to make progress for you without your file by sending them any correspondence/documents you received before the intervention. They may also be able to get information directly from any other solicitors/organisations involved in the case.

If your file was an electronic file, the intervention agents are working to enable these files to be sent by secure email/downloaded from a document portal. If you have any urgent queries about an electronic file held for you, please contact the relevant intervention agent. They will do all they can to help.

Please speak to your solicitor at their new firm first of all. If they have not got all the relevant files/documents they should let the intervention agents know, who can send any other files recovered relating to the matter to them.

The intervention agents need your consent to do this. You can email consent to them. Please include contact details of your new lawyer.

If there are two or more of you named as clients, you all/both need to agree and tell the intervention agent.

The intervention agents need your consent to do this. You can email consent to them. Please include the full address to which the file should be sent, and send a copy of your identification (eg copy of your passport/driving licence).

If there are two or more of you named as clients, you all/both need to agree and tell the intervention agents.

It won’t cost you anything to have your documents sent to you or your new lawyer.

All old/archived files, wills and deeds held in storage by the firm are being collected and indexed by us. We are working as hard as we can to work with storage companies to get these files released as soon as possible. Unfortunately due to constraints put on us by the storage firm and the exceptionally high volumes and the reliance on those storage companies to resource the release of those files, it will take us many months to collect all the items.

If you want to request old/archived files please complete a file request form.

You will also need to provide a form of identification. If we are able to locate your file or document, we will make sure it is sent to you as soon as possible.

When we close a law firm, we take possession of any money the firm held. 

If you believe that the firm was holding your money, you might be able to apply to the SRA Compensation Fund. This is a discretionary fund, applications are considered using certain criteria.

We are not imposing a cap on compensation fund payments for this matter, and instead we are prioritising claims. Information on how we will prioritise applications is available here: Guidance for SRA Compensation Fund applications on Axiom Ince

Our equality impact assessment on how that guidance might affect people is available here: Equality impact assessment for the prioritisation of applications to the SRA Compensation Fund

We have also produced supporting notes for those making applications. Those supporting notes are available here: Compensation Fund Applications - Axiom Ince Limited Q&A (PDF 4 pages, 171KB) 

If you want to complain - or already have a complaint in progress - about the quality of service you have received from Axiom Ince you should contact the Legal Ombudsman.

Email the Ombudsman via enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, or call them on 0300 555 0333.

Examples of complaints the Legal Ombudsman can look at include:

• Delay: no clear reason for the work taking longer than expected.
• Unclear billing and costs information: the costs were unclear or different from the original estimate.
• Poor communication: the process wasn't well explained, there wasn't enough information for you to make an informed choice, or you weren't kept updated about the progress of your case.

We and the intervention agents are not representatives of Axiom Ince so will not be handling or responding to such complaints.

We understand this is a difficult time for you.

The intervention agents’ role is however solely focused on the protection of clients and assisting them in whatever way we can. The intervention agents are not representatives of or successor practices to Axiom Ince. They are therefore unable to deal with issues relating to your employment. You may wish to seek independent legal advice. The links below may also help:

Acas

Citizens Advice

LawCare

If you were a trainee at the firm, the Law Society has useful information for you. 

What to do if your training is terminated | The Law Society

If you are continuing to act for your former clients at a new firm and took files with clients’ consent before the intervention, please email details of the firm you used to work for and details of the files (client name/matter description) to the relevant intervention agent. This will help the intervention agents to effectively direct any enquiries they receive about those files.

If you need your clients’ files from the intervention agents, please email your clients’ written consent to transfer their files to you to the relevant intervention agent.

Separately from the intervention, Neil Bennett, Alex Cadwallader & Andrew Poxon were appointed as Joint Administrators of Axiom Ince on 26 October 2023.

Details of the Administration and how this differs from the intervention can be found here: Leonard Curtis appointed Joint Administrators of Axiom Ince Limited. 

Creditors should contact axiomince@leonardcurtis.co.uk.

You can:

• speak to the relevant intervention agent (see contact details above).
• email the relevant intervention agent (see contact details above)
• find out more about interventions.