Adams Harrison’s Commitment to Assist Local Students With Work Experience Opportunities

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We are committed to supporting the communities local to our offices in Haverhill, Saffron Walden and Sawston in a number of ways but particularly by offering work experience to students.

Being a small firm, and committed to ensuring that any work experience placement offered is worthwhile and enjoyable, we are limited by the number of placements we are able to offer. In June/July 2024 placements were offered to two students in each office.

We hope that it will be the start of an ongoing relationship and we are very proud to confirm that we currently have students who participated in work experience placements working for us on a part-time basis in entry level positions and one is now undertaking qualifying training with us to become a solicitor.

Employability Partnership Certificate Of Appreciation

Adams Harrison Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation – what’s it all about?

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The Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) is a quality assurance scheme introduced by the Law Society in 2011 and it has been widely adopted by many solicitors and law firms. There are now more than 3,000 solicitor firms who are accredited on the scheme.

Membership of CQS is designed to establish a level of credibility for member firms with stakeholders eg regulators, lenders, insurers and consumers, and the core aims of the Scheme are to improve the quality and consistency of services provided by residential conveyancing practices, and to help combat fraud and money laundering.

There are significant overlaps between the Lexcel accreditation (which Adams Harrison have held for 25 years and an earlier post explained) and CQS, but to achieve the CQS accreditation firms must apply and demonstrate greater focus on risk management, compulsory training and client care in the relevant aspects of conveyancing work.

Adams Harrison were an early adopter, having held the CQS accreditation continuously since July 2011, and were delighted to renew their accreditation for a further 12 months in July 2024.

You can find out more about the Conveyancing Quality Scheme here:

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/firm-accreditations/conveyancing-quality-scheme

Adams Harrison Customer Service Excellence (CSE) accreditation – what’s it all about?

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Adams Harrison are extremely proud to have held the Customer Service accreditation since 2021 and have recently re-accredited for a further three years.

Originally known as Charter Mark it was one of the consequences of a political iniative, the Citizen’s Charter, which was launched by Prime Minister John Major in 1991, with its purpose being to improve customer service and performance in the public sector.

Over time Charter Mark evolved and in 2005 it was reviewed and as a consequence the Customer Service Excellence standard was launched. Although the principle focus was on public sector organisatioons, voluntary organisations having more than 10% public funding and private subcontractors on public contracts

The Customer Service Excellence Standard is made up of 5 main criteria. Assessment is carried out annually via a desktop review followed by an onsite / or remote review which views physical documentation and also speaks to clients, staff and partners to review their attitudes and working practices and also the firm’s customer focussed initiatives and performance.

You can find out more about the Lexcel quality standard here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/firm-accreditations/lexcel

*These are law firms who still exist as they did when they were first awarded the Lexcel accreditation. Some law firms who were awarded the accreditation on 25th May 1999 or earlier may have merged or been acquired by other firms.

Tracy Bonham celebrates 35 years’ service at Adams Harrison

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Tracy joined the practice when it was Adams and Land and shortly after she started Adams and Land merged with Harrison and Co to become Adams Harrison.

Tracy Bonham celebrates 35 years’ service at Adams Harrison

Tracy has worked in a number of roles in the Saffron Walden office during her 35 years, starting as Office Junior / Accounts Assistant. She then moved to Office Junior / Receptionist and then became a full time Receptionist.

Over the years Tracy took on more secretarial duties until she became secretary to Melanie Pratlett in the Private Client Department.

As she acquired more Private Client knowledge and skills her role evolved into more paralegal type work and she then became Probate Assistant to Melanie.

Tracy is not our only long serving employee celebrating a work anniversary this year.

In the past few weeks Michelle Salmon, who is a Residential Conveyancing Personal Assistant in Haverhill office, celebrated 25 years; and Amanda Cox, who is Receptionist / Office Administrator in Haverhill office, celebrated 25 years.

How do I start divorce proceedings?

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Divorce proceedings are now dealt with through an online court portal. Since this procedure came into force, you do not now need to site grounds for divorce i.e. adultery or two years separation, only that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.

You can only now apply for divorce through the court portal by making a sole application yourself or jointly with your spouse should you wish and provided you are both in agreement.

The initial steps consist of completing an online form with basic details of the parties and the marriage. You will also need to upload a full, clear, colour copy of your marriage certificate onto the court portal. If you do not have your original marriage certificate, you can apply for this online. There is usually a small fee for this and it should come through within a few weeks.

When applying for divorce, there is a court fee payable in the sum of £593 however, if you are on low income, you may be able to apply for fee exemption. In order to check if you are eligible for this, you need to complete a further online form called ‘How to apply for help with fees: EX160’. Once completed, if you are eligible for full fee exemption, you will be notified there and then and given a code to use when completing your divorce application. However, depending on your income, you may be required to pay a part payment towards the court fee but again, you will be notified of this.

Once you have uploaded your divorce application, the Court will then review this and provided this is completed correctly, they will then issue your divorce application and provide you with a unique 16 digit case number to use on all correspondence in connection with these proceedings.

We are experts at handling divorces from the simplest to the most complex, so when you are ready to proceed please do call and we will provide you the professional support you need at a difficult time in your life.

Emma Bilsborrow​​​​, Legal Executive, Partner