Jarmans Solicitors Ltd in Sittingbourne, Kent & Chancery Lane, London:
There are many things people can use to gauge whether a law firm stands out from the rest. They may have a decent website, plenty of available information, staff profiles, details of charity work, testimonials, third party reviews, and so on. If a firm has only a couple of these, it might feel as though you don't know enough to decide.
Jarmans Solicitors have everything we usually reference when detailing our review of a firm. Even so far as responding to reviews on third party site. What does that mean? Well, at the very least they are modern enough to understand the internet (you'd be surprised how many law firms still haven't caught up). It could also mean they've researched what's possible and organised the most sought after information so people can view it. Either way, it reflects well on their general setup.
"We have the strength and breadth of service and expertise of the large London and Kent firms but provide exceptional service at better value. Our regional base keeps our rates competitive but we have clients all over the world."
This is a more complex declaration compared to most we've read. However at least it's cliche-free. If you've been searching for a firm for a while now, you may have noticed the number of practically mirror-image websites all stating how that firm is 'modern yet traditional', 'friendly yet professional', 'thorough yet swift', etc. It's almost as if they've all hired the same content writer. Jarmans do push forward one common sales pitch argument though, regarding the law firm's perceived age:
"We give legal advice to individuals, organisations and businesses and have done so for over 100 years (originally as Winch Greensted and Winch)."
We regularly see firms quoting 50, 100 or even 200+ years' experience. Some have quite credible credentials to support their claims, and others state incredibly tenuous historical links involving someone's brother's sister's uncle's dog who once lived next to the office. We would hope that most people will already realise that the age of a law firm's building, brand name or even staff is really neither here nor there. A 100 year old firm may assign you a 1 year qualified solicitor. A 1 year old law firm might have a 30 year veteran on their team. When a new solicitor joins a law firm, there isn't some strange spiritualist ceremony where all the experience and expertise of the last solicitor is transferred to them.
The actual, current staff of the firm are the most crucial thing in our opinion. That's why we always recommend having a look at The Law Society's page for any firm. For Jarmans Solicitors Ltd there are 8 solicitors listed with qualification dates ranging from 1978 to 2005. A pretty good mix of experience and fresh minds.
Just as a couple of examples: a founding member of the firm, Barry Bond, heads the commercial and employment departments with over 40 years under his belt resulting in cases covering Europe, the USA, South America, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand. Jay Sahota, a senior partner, worked in a City law firm before moving to Jarmans Solicitors handling litigation matters up to £3.5billion. Along side them are newer people such as Xanthe Harris who only joined the firm in 2018 after qualifying not long before.
So what are people saying about the firm so far? Naturally they've posted their own hand-picked testimonials on their website. Unfortunately most solicitors are fond of vague and adjective-filled praise devoid of any useful information. This typically results in no-one bothering to read through them. Whilst phrases such as "totally recommend", "great firm", and "exceeded expectations" are all things solicitors want to hear about themselves - none of them help a potential client understand why. However, most of the testimonials Jarmans have displayed are quite in-depth:
• "We should like to thank you and all Jarman's staff ... for their efficient help and assistance in these transactions."
• "Any time i needed advice ... it was dealt with speedily, on the same day in most cases."
• "I was to the point of losing a sale on my property and within a week has put me in the best position possible ..."
• "... installed confidence in me from the very first meeting and had a new approach"
Many also name the specific person they were dealing with as well:
• "Any time i needed advice ... it was dealt with speedily, on the same day in most cases."
• "I was to the point of losing a sale on my property and within a week has put me in the best position possible ..."
• "... installed confidence in me from the very first meeting and had a new approach"
• "Rajinder Rai is a credit to Jarmans solicitors ..."
• "I would like to commend you Duane on first impressions ..."
• "... i was made to feel at ease with Gordon Johnson"
• "I highly recommend Jay Sahota and his team ..."
How does these compare with the third party independent review sites? Well, our first tip before even heading to third party boards such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Google, Facebook and so on - is to make sure you switch the sort order from 'relevancy' to 'newest' where possible. If a firm has a handful of bad reviews ten years ago then nothing but 5 star reviews ever since - then we would consider that important to note. Firms should not be forever stained for the actions of one bad staff member who was fired along time ago. (That's a generalised example, not specific to Jarmans.)
• "I would like to commend you Duane on first impressions ..."
• "... i was made to feel at ease with Gordon Johnson"
• "I highly recommend Jay Sahota and his team ..."
We also personally put more faith in reviewers who have left dozens of reviews on many different firms versus usernames that have only ever placed that one review - either 5 star or 1 star. But yes, overall the positive feedback about Jarmans lawyers continues on third party sites leading on from their own testimonials:
• "Xanthe Harris was exceptional. She was completely professional and sensitive throughout the process, keeping me updated on progress regularly. I never once had to chase her for information ..."
• "... we have worked with Barry and he was great considering the lack of time we had to turn the job around ..."
• "Very helpful with a recent commercial building purchase. Jarmans even ended up saving me more money through good advice ..."
In all honesty, there aren't many downsides we could spot and only two worth mentioning. The first is that the website didn't display well on older machines we tested. We expect this to be less than 5% of users though. The second is opening hours. Jarmans do state Saturday morning appointments are possible for Conveyancy matters. But outside of that, they do the traditional 9am-5pm solicitors hours with closures on bank holidays. When we first started reviewing law firms 20+ years ago, that was standard because solicitors basically were open the same times as courts. However at that time everyone else involved such as insurers, healthcare professionals, letting agents, etc. all followed a similar schedule too.
• "... we have worked with Barry and he was great considering the lack of time we had to turn the job around ..."
• "Very helpful with a recent commercial building purchase. Jarmans even ended up saving me more money through good advice ..."
Most of the 'new' law firms opening up post-24/7-mobile-phone-and-internet tend to offer out of hours/weekend appointments as well as home/hospital visits where needed. Not to mention Skype/Facetime consultations where physical appointments are not possible. So we'd like to see a bit more flexibility, even if it just becomes normal for all law firms to do one late night every second Thursday. That's a general complaint across the industry as a whole though, not something we think only Jarmans could possibly look at.
A quick note on navigation as the double 's' in www.jarmanssolicitors.co.uk could pose the possibility of errors. We checked several variants such as www.jarmansolicitors.co.uk and those with hyphens, as well as other TLDs including www.jarmansolicitors.com and www.jarmanssolicitors.com - but none of them seemed to be owned by the firm. No website came up for most we tried either. As the firm handles conveyancing and this has been a target for scammers (search "house purchase bank detail fraud" to read news and articles on the issue) we would therefore recommend bookmarking the site once you're on it just to be sure. Obviously never discuss payment matters via email, and we'll have a last word from the firm:
"We think outside the box and punch above our weight to deliver top-notch advice and solutions to any legal issue. Our clients receive City of London expertise at Kentish rates."
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Jarmans Solicitors Ltd it's best to visit the website (www.jarmanssolicitors.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Jarmans Solicitors Sittingbourne may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.