Have you been taken to court or took anyone to court

evmundo

I was lucky when I took my X to court for the rent she paid up straight away.I don't think she could afford to have a black mark on her record.

MissMoneypenny

hethmar wrote: »

Dont forget too, that a lot of house contents insurance (and other services like credit cards etc.) give you freebie legal cover. This isnt automatic, you have to submit all details and then a panel decides whether the case is at least 70% winnable and you get your legal fees paid for - normally having to use their (sometimes very duff) solicitors though.

You can choose your own solicitor, as long as they sign up to the insurers or you can use a firm that the insurers already have on their books.

If you don't want the duff solicitor the solicitors firm give you, you can go back to your insurers and request another one. At this point, you might find that the firm of solicitors will give you one of their better solicitors rather than lose the business to another firm.

It's your insurance cover that is paying the solicitors, so don't let the solicitors firm palm you off with one of their duff solicitors. If you don't ask then you won't get.

mlz1413

I took a bloke to court in the very dim and distant past with help from legal aid for unprofessional work that he did on a car of mine, which cost 3 times more to put right - I won, all the money was due to go to legal aid in costs (they hadn't told me that at the time!) after a year of chasing I told the legal aid board it was their problem as he had moved abroad. Never heard a thing since.

Took an ex-tenant to court 2 years ago after much chasing and threatening, they didn't show up so awarded full claim and costs. After a year of almost weekly chasing to get back under half the amount due I decided to put it behind me and move on.

hethmar

Miss Money Penny, you cannot choose your own solicitor - Im sorry but that is not allowed with our insurer and I have not heard of any others who allow that. We started off using and paying our own local man (you cannot reclaim those costs) but once we applied for the insurer to cover the case, we had to use their panel solicitors. We have complained to both the insurers and to the head of the team at the solicitors and were assured the next case handler was very experienced and would act with urgency. 3 weeks later he still hadnt contacted us so we rang him and he admitted he hadnt even looked at the case. The head of the team reviewed our case notes and wrote the quickest and longest letter (even had accurate spelling) ever telling us that she could find no cause for complaint.

We have had 6 different solicitors with the same firm - some of whom literally had to be pushed every step to even get a letter sent out after 6 or 8 weeks. They seem to be either trainees or temporary workers (one Aussie did absolutely nothing for nearly a year) or part timers. To be honest we despaired - it felt as though we were fighting on two fronts. I shant go in to any more on here as we are in the middle of litigation, but we have had a truly horrific experience with these people - at one point we were apparently sueing ourselves.

clutton_2

Geoffky says ""clutton..i can....you can guess what i signed...""

a marriage license ?

MissMoneypenny

hethmar wrote: »

Miss Money Penny, you cannot choose your own solicitor - Im sorry but that is not allowed with our insurer and I have not heard of any others who allow that. We started off using and paying our own local man (you cannot reclaim those costs) but once we applied for the insurer to cover the case, we had to use their panel solicitors.

Which insurers is that?

From what I have been told by my various insurers over the years, our insurers give instructions to a legal insurer, if they agree we have a case. DAS is one of these legal insurers https://www.das.co.uk/main.asp.

Insurers are quite clear that they will not pay any legal expenses before the date they agree to take the case.

When the insurer agrees to take the case, you pay them your excess (on your policy) and they give instructions to the legal insurers they have passed the work to. You are then contacted by that legal insurer and they give you a contact name at their firm. You are then asked which solicitors you would like to use.

In one of my cases, I wanted to use a local solicitor because of his local knowledge in the matter and he had a good reputation. As this firm wasn't on my legal insurers panel, the senior partner signed up to them, so that I could then use his firm.

On two other occasions when I claimed on my insurance, I used the firm they recommended. On both occasion, those solicitors gave me the dud solicitors (things like not doing the work, never being at work and being told by their PAs to make an appointment to speak to them on the phone as they worked form home a lot). I complained to my legal insurers and they told me it was my insurance paying and therefore I could change solicitors if I wanted to. Which I then did.

hethmar wrote: »

We have complained to both the insurers and to the head of the team at the solicitors and were assured the next case handler was very experienced and would act with urgency. 3 weeks later he still hadnt contacted us so we rang him and he admitted he hadnt even looked at the case. The head of the team reviewed our case notes and wrote the quickest and longest letter (even had accurate spelling) ever telling us that she could find no cause for complaint.

The head of which team? The solicitors or your legal insurers?

I have used DAS and another that kept changing it name, so not sure what they are called now. Both were very good. However, one of my household insurers said they wouldn't cover a case, but when I asked for that to be confirmed in writing, they wrote and said they would cover my case.

Lakey

I stood up for my two children when my ex-husband wanted to recind any maintenance rights. I could not/would not entertain an ever increasing solicitors bill and defended myself in the county court before a circuit judge. My ex had a barrister and a solicitor fighting his corner, I had myself and my Mckenzie friend, my very helpful sibling.
I got the barrister on the back foot, told the truth, felt justice would prevail, and believe it or not, it did.
I do still believe that the law is an !!!, but human faith and goodness have to be the most important things that we must always believe in.

:T

hethmar

I have heard DAS is much better than the solicitors we have. However, we asked if our local solicitor could represent us and we were told no, it was their panel solicitors and that was that. I can assure you the mistakes have been horrific and had we not been on the ball Im sure the whole thing would have collapsed by now. They dont give a choice of solicitors - there is one very large firm which handles all their cases.

As I said, we complained to both the Insurers and to the Head of the Team at the solicitors. Case handlers come and go without us knowing until we try to get an answer - I have asked several times now for reassurance that they do not charge the insurer for correcting mistakes that we have pointed out nor for a new case handler (6 so far) having to spend time reading up on the case. I have never received a reply to that query. The quality of letter writing has been appalling - one particular chap couldnt string a sentence together without several spelling mistakes - I assume that they even type up their own letters as each case handlers had a different style.

Which insurance company use DAS please so that once this nightmare is over we can get a different insurer. OR do you mean that you insured with DAS direct for legal cover? Ours is part of our house contents insurance cover.

MissMoneypenny

hethmar wrote: »

Which insurance company use DAS please so that once this nightmare is over we can get a different insurer. OR do you mean that you insured with DAS direct for legal cover? Ours is part of our house contents insurance cover.

Mine were always part of contents insurance too. As I recall, Churchill were on of the insurers who used DAS. Perhaps you could check which legal insurers a company uses before you take a policy out? I know the amount of legal cover varies from company to company.

The most complex case I had was not with DAS, but with the legal insurers who kept changing their name. I think they started out as Hambros? They were excellent.

hethmar

Ours have been awful. We are onto our 6 case handler now - the others just leave without letting us know - as I said they seem to be either trainees, temps or part timers. We have had letters sent to the wrong addresses, we have had our names confused with the defendants - we turned up at a pre hearing and they had sent the wrong papers to the Barrister - the list goes on and on and would turn your hair grey.