Complicated Legal Aid issues -please help me

kimlisa66

I hope i am on the right forum here and someone has some guidance.

I separated very acrimoniously from my husband last October. It got nasty and he began to make threats towards me. I visited a solicitor with a view to getting advice about Divorce and she recommended I take out an injunction. I ummed and ahhed for a couple of weeks but went ahead with it.

She explained that I might qualify for legal aid, that is was recoverable if I secured property as a result but did not give me a written statement of her charges or any information about the Legal Aid system. Her words to me were, you will probably only have to pay a small amount towards it. Being naive I assumed this would be about 50 quid or so.

Some weeks after the injunction had been granted I got a letter from the LSC saying i had to pay £150 per month until the Legal Aid Certificate is discharged. There is no way I could pay £150 per month, I was already in debt, working 29 hrs a week for a crap salary and having to pay all the bills, childcare etc and at the time was faced with a 20k overpayment as a result of a tax credit error.

If I had known at the time I would have to pay that amount of money per month, then I would have refused to go ahead with the injunction. As it happens, I had it lifted as my Ex had a breakdown afterwards, and working in mental health I had some insight as to how he was feeling. Getting it lifted was the right thing to do and I am glad I did.

I accepted the legal aid certificate but did not make any payments as I just didnt have the money. In Easter this year I got a letter saying that if I did not show just cause as to why I had not accepted the certificate, it would be withdrawn and I would have to pay full costs.

They sent the letter on a Thursday, which was Easter Weekend, I received in on the Saturday but they wanted the answer by bank Holiday Easter Monday. !! On the Tuesday I faxed a letter over to them stating I had accepted the certificate in writing previously but how could I possibly then show just cause as to why I had supposedly not accepted it to reach them when their offices are closed on a public holiday ?

They now claim they did not receive this fax and my solicitor tells me they always lose faxes but she could not help me at all further and her charges were being calculated for full payment.

I have never been informed as to what her hourly charges were, and like I say, If I knew how much the legal aid charge was monthly I would not have gone ahead. Ive never had any paperwork relating to any of this, only the outcome of the injunction at the time and a copy of a letter in response to a letter that my husbands solicitor wrote. When my husband realised how much solicitors were, he disintructed his. Wise move I would say.

My total charge according to the LSC is just short of £700 but I dont know if this is the whole amount or not.

They are demanding repayment by 6th August but I go into hospital this Wednesday for a major operation and will be off work for up to 12 weeks.

I cannot pay this charge and dispute the poor advice handed out to me by my solicitor who pushed me hard into the injunction route when she knew I was unsure if it was the best thing at the time.

Please help me sort this out.

Kim

stressedofdevon

I really feel for you. It is stressful enough separating from your partner without getting into debt over it too. So many people think Legal Aid is free or virtually free. My divorce has been so terrible I now owe LA £35000k! As I only got awarded £30000k in settlement from the ex which he has not paid four years later on it actually made me a loss of £5000.

I would not advise you to take legal advice as this will only run up more bills. Have you tried talking to a real person at legal aid? My ex once made allegations that got my certificate suspended on the eve of a hearing, and I spoke to some lovely people who were so kind and helpful, so it is worth trying to get some advice from them. If you don't get someone friendly straight away it is always worth ringing again or asking for the supervisor maybe?

Another place that could be helpful is CAB who may be able to call on your behalf or come up with a solution. Also, if you feel the solicitor acted wrongly by not giving you an idea of costs try the Law Society. They are also very sympathetic and will tell you on the phone for nothing if it is something they can pursue for you.

Good luck and keep us posted as to how it works out.

WestonDave

There are fairly strict rules on information which must be supplied to you at the start of and during any legal aid matter. Unless you are on income support levels of income it is likely that you will have to pay a contribution towards the costs and if you receive an asset settlement then the LSC will reclaim their costs from that (although if its a transfer of the matrimonial home this is normally deferred until a subsequent sale). By accepting the certificate and having the injunction issued you effectively agreed to the £150 per month payment as you cannot have one without paying the other.

Your options now are probably a complaint about the way the case was handled - with that you would have to complain to the complaints partner at the firm involved (they have to appoint one) and possibly to the LSC about breach of their quality standards - might be worth asking them to call the file in for inspection!. Of course you should have had a letter at the outset detailing charges (called a Rule 5 letter!) and that should also give the name of the complaints partner. If having contacted the complaints partner you are still not satisfied then you can complain to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority who have relatively recently taken over from the Law Society in dealing with this sort of matter.

From what I can see, unless a lot of correspondance has gone missing in the post, your case does not appear to have been handled properly but obviously I haven't seen the file which may contain more "evidence" of proper work. However that in itself is not necessarily going to effect the charge on you - your best hope is that the complaints partner doesn't want to get the SRA involved in this and offers you something towards the £700 as a compromise.

kimlisa66

Hello there

Thanks to both of you for very helpful advice.

I have looked through my paperwork and I can find no rule 5 letter, in fact I hardly have any correspondence from my solicitor. I sent her several emails regarding my case back in December and she didn't even bother replying to them.

The injunction was issued before my legal aid was calculated, that was in November, I didn't receive my legal aid certificate until at least late December/January when the charges were mentioned. There was also a one off charge of £250 to pay as well as the monthly charges.

There doesn't appear to be any transparency about the way my case has been handled, so I have today posted of a letter to LSC, copying in the solicitor, disputing the way this has been handled with regard to the charges, asking for a full breakdown of costs for work done.

My income was also calculated incorrectly, I received a backdated payrise in December, which skewed the amount I normally earn, but my entitlement was calculated with a 6 month backdated lump sum included. I pointed it out at the time but it wasn't acknowledged.

My other problem is that I am in hospital from tomorrow for a major operation, that will keep me out of action for at least 12 weeks, and any money I have in the bank will be paying my bills as I wont qualify for any organisational sick pay.

Basically, I cannot pay what they are asking for, as had I have know the extent of the charges beforehand, or at least an estimate as such, I would have not gone ahead with it.

I will never ever use a solicitor again, I have come to the conclusion they are a pointless waste of money in most cases.

Kim