Solicitors fees

malinky31

Hi

not sure if this is the right place to ask but Im now out of ideas.
My mum died 6 years ago with no will so her estate went in to probate.
I have an older sister and a younger disabled brother. Cutting a very long story short I lost custody of my brother to his father (my step-father) who then forced the sale of my mum's house (which I and my new born son were living in) making me homeless. We were then taken to court for our share of the profit from the sale of the house (the man is not a nice person!). He was awarded £80k whilst my sister and I were awarded £20k each.....the kick in the teeth came when the judge then ordered us to pay their solicitor fees! which totalled £64k! Our solicitor argued that this was too high as our fees only amounted to £15k, we suspect that they were trying to claw back some of the fees from the custody case. Things went quiet after this until we received a letter saying that they had settled with the otherside, paying off £40k (all our inheritance) they hadnt even consulted us on it. We have since found out there were things we could have done at the time had our solicitor told us but now its been two years and we are set to have this debt hanging over us for the next 10 years (my sister is disabled and cant work and Im a single parent with little money spare). Is there any way of getting any part of this written off, we would never have agreed to giving the other side £40k and would have had money to pay our own bill off.

barvid

I suspect you need more expert advice than you will find on a consumer rights forum, as this one mainly deals with problems with shops and returning goods etc etc. There may be a better board on MSE, not sure.

Tozer

barvid wrote: »

I suspect you need more expert advice than you will find on a consumer rights forum, as this one mainly deals with problems with shops and returning goods etc etc. There may be a better board on MSE, not sure.

Agree with this although I don't think any board on this or any other website is qualified to advise. This is a specialist area as you may have a claim for professional negligence against the firm of solicitors.

As a solicitor myself, I would only advise you to exercise EXTREME caution taking advice from an internet forum. You need to find a firm that specialises in prof neg.

Your firm should have kept you informed as to costs and the consequences of losing at trial - as well as the proportionality of actually going to Court. In short, you may have a case. That said, expert advice is required.

Freddie_Snowbits

Wicked witch in the North did the same when Dad Died, but we stopped her. Go and see a solictor NOW