The fragile state of the claims sector has come into focus again with the closure of a north west firm. AWH Solicitors, which operated from offices in Manchester and Blackburn, served a notice of intention to appoint an administrator earlier this week. The application was made under the name M8 Trading Ltd, which was known as AWH legal Ltd until last month.
It is understood that ahead of the administration, the firm has managed to transfer its work in progress to other practices, with fee earners moving to the acquiring firms.
Director Abdul Hussain told the Gazette that the closure had been prompted by the firm’s funder declining to make any further capital available for the ongoing cases. He said: ‘We weren’t doing anything speculative or exotic. The funding withdrawal wasn’t a reflection of our cases or our conduct; it was a consequence of funders pulling back from the market broadly.
‘We did everything we could to find alternative funding quickly, but the market simply isn’t there at the moment for firms in our position. Once it became clear we couldn’t bridge the gap, we made the decision to wind down in an orderly way rather than let things deteriorate — which we felt was the right thing to do for our clients and staff.’
AWH Legal was overdue filing its 2024 accounts, which were supposed to be with Companies House by the end of December. According to the accounts for the year to 31 December 2023, turnover fell from £5.3m to £3.2 and the company made pre-tax losses of around £29,000. Headcount had been reduced during the year from 92 to 60.
A loan had been registered with litigation funder I Quote Limited in June 2023 through a fixed charge on all the assets owned by the company. As of the end of 2023, the firm also owed bank loans of £2.1m which had to be paid within five years.
AWH Solicitors specialised in clinical negligence and noise-induced hearing loss claims but also worked in personal injury, industrial disease and housing disrepair.
The firm had itself bought other businesses out if administration as it grew over the last decade. These included Manchester firm Roebucks Solicitors and Cheshire firm Roberts Jackson.
Hussain is listed on Companies House as a director of six other businesses but none of those is affected by the AWH closure.
AWH Solicitors operated independently, with its own funding arrangements, its own liabilities, and its own client base. The wind-down relates solely to that entity.
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